UC 0079: Before the Gundam
by Admiral Larsen
Summary: An attempt to write about the early days of the One Year War as seen in both the original MSG and in the novel version. Updated with chapter 8. Please read and review.
1. Ever closer to war

**One Week War:**

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam, it is owned by Bandai and Sunrise.

Chapter 1: Ever closer to war.

**Zum City, Side 3, late December 0078:**

Named after the martyred leader of Zeon, the capital of the Principality of Zeon (formerly Side 3) usually bristled with life despite the presence of the military. Soldiers and civilians mingled with each other as they tried to go about their lives despite the persistent and numerous rumors of war with the hated Earth Federation. Many here did not want a war but they felt that it was the only way to achieve the desire of independence from the hated elites of Earth.

This night however, the city remained deathly quiet and a sense of foreboding hung around the air as convoys headed towards the space ports, berths started to become empty and the factories such as the Zeonic Corporation and Zimmad Company went into overtime in the production of new weapons of war. Most importantly of all, numerous motorcades zoomed through the streets towards the enormous and foreboding White palace that served as the residence of Degwin Sodo Zabi, leader of Zeon, and his children when they arrived in from both Solomon and A Bao Qau.

As each of the VIPs arrived, military police escorted them inside into a large conference room that contained many paintings and several large view screens of space. It had a large table found in rich mansions.

Many politicians and generals were present at the meeting but the most important members were that of Kycilia Zabi (commander of the Mobile Attack Force), and her two brothers Dozle Zabi (commander of the Space Attack Force), and young Garma Zabi, who had been stationed with his older brother Dozle. Though the two elder Zabis did not talk with each other much, they did attempt to strike up a conversation when their younger brother was around.

Suddenly, an aide interrupted with everyone, "Ladies and Gentlemen, if you will please have a seat, the sovereign and the supreme commander will be with us shortly. Everyone hurried to their seats as the large wall with the portrait of Zeon Zum Deikun opened itself to reveal an enormous screen.

A few minutes later, Sovereign Degwin Zabi, looking harried and gaunt as ever entered the room along with Prime Minister Darcia Bakharov. The entire room stood up in salute before the Sovereign ushered them to return to their seats.

Last to arrive was none other than Supreme Commander Gihren Zabi (the oldest out of Degiwn's children) along with Cecilia Irene, his red-haired secretary and perhaps even more than that if the rumors were true. He walked into the room with his usual cold hard look to his eyes while tapping his long silver cane down on the floor in a silent and tensed filled room. As soon as he reached his seat, Cecilia handed him several stacks of large folders to which Gihren began looking through for the next few minutes.

The tension in the room started to thicken even more as the commanders in the room wondered if this was another round of humiliation and perhaps execution by Gihren's secret police. The dictator smiled for a moment at the smell of fear before closing the last of the notes and then turned to his audience.

"Sovereign Degwin, brothers and sisters, and comrades, you've all been reading the intelligence reports about the continuing buildup of the Earth Federation Forces". He paused before continuing, "Despite all our efforts to achieve a compromise, the Federation government continues to build up its forces while making horrendous demands out of us without hearing our case".

He then paused while Cecilia passed out several "trimmed" copies of the reports that he had read for the past few months". As everyone read through them, some of the more hotheaded commanders started to seethe in anger at its contents but they'd dare not speak for being out of line and getting into trouble. Fortunately, Dozle Zabi had no such problems with speaking his mind and he spoke their thoughts exactly when he slammed the table, "This is an outrage of what they demand of us". He then paused for a moment before stating, "I don't know about you brother but the Earth Federation's demands account for nothing less than unconditional surrender and a return to the status of slaves that we've all endured for the past fifty years".

Kycilia then remarked in her icy tone, "Perhaps they truly fear what we are capable of as long as we still exist for all to see". Everyone knew what the Zabi woman meant with her words, for it was common knowledge that many in the Earth Federation government hated the decision its government took many years earlier to grant Deikun's request of Side 3 having some form of autonomy in its day-to-day affairs. Already its existence had sparked the whispers of rebellion in the other sides. Kycilia then turned to her brother with an icy stare and asked, "But we already know about this so why have you gathered us all here tonight".

Gihren paused for a moment to look at everyone in the eye before he said the words most would truly dread, "I feel that it is time to put the plans into action". To everyone in the room, it was a euphemism to "Let's us go to war and eliminate these bastards once and for all".

Prime Minister Bakharov immediately interrupted, "Are you mad sir, and if we go to war, we could very well lose everything and a war is something that Deikun would never go with for it would betray his ideals". He then paused before turning to the sovereign and asked, "Sir, you must give me and the others more time to resolve the situation so as to avoid this catastrophe".

Gihren turned a cold eye to the Prime Minister, who he considered nothing more than pure rubbish and told him in a cold tone, "If we don't do anything then Zeon's ideals are dead either way". He then turned to his father, the sovereign, and told him, "We must proceed or else everyone else will consider us the laughing stock of space and consider us spineless for not resisting any further".

The Sovereign took a heavy breath before turning to Bakharov and asked, "What are the chances of cooling things with the Earth Federation". Bakharov shook his head then replied, "But I would rather try that then consider the opinion you're eldest son is stating".

Gihren then turned to his father and replied, "Father, even you can see that we have no choice but to implement the plan". He paused before continuing, "The Prime Minister's negotiations have already proven fruitless thus far and even he admits here in this room that there's very little chance it will improve". He then spoke to everyone else in the room, "If we wait any longer then if the Earth Federation Forces decide to destroy us, they'll sweep us aside without any resistance".

Degwin Zabi considered all the words spoken in the room and realizing that there was nothing he could to do stop this for he along with Prime Minister Bakharov had virtually no power to influence the political area of their own homeland turned and asked Gihren, "Once we launch, the Earth Federation will retaliate, can you guarantee the protection of Zeon during this crisis".

Gihren replied icily, "With what we're about to unleash on them, I think the Earth Federation will be crawling towards us to beg for peace in a few weeks". That chilled the politicians and some of the generals in the room as they wondered what Gihren truly meant. The Supreme Commander then walked up to his father with a large folder in his hands and told him, "Before we begin, you have to sign this, telling us you have given us your full assent and that you've heard all other options". The Sovereign took a deep breath before he signed the document. After handing this to Cecilia, Gihren walked back to his seat and turned to everyone, "Now the moment we've all waited for many years has arrived", "We must do everything we can in our power to ensure success against our Federation enemies". He then ended with the phrase, "Sieg Zeon". The room followed suit and then started to empty as the occupants left the room, some of them deathly stunned by what they had just heard but fearful to voice their concerns out of fear of being arrested.

As Kycilia was about to leave, Gihren called out to her, "I would like you to stay for a few minutes so that we can discuss the details of the plan". Kycilia took a deep breath and then headed back into the room while Cecilia Irene closed the door behind them so that no one else could overhear what the two oldest Zabi children would speak of.

**Jaburo, South America: **

The main headquarters of the Earth Federation Forces was hidden deep in the forests of South America to camouflage itself from the prying eyes of any would be future opponent. Above it was the usual large mass of trees, rocks, and rivers common to the continent. It would have been difficult to find that any sense of man had influenced the area with the exception of a regular size airbase which regularly received shipments of supplies and new troops in huge yellow-orange Medea transport planes.

Hidden beneath the ground was a completely different story. Thanks to the efforts of the ingenuity of man, an enormous city sprung up from within the many caverns of the area. Enormous factories littered the area, producing the weapons and ammunition needed for the Federation forces in immense quantities. Huge dockyards housed numerous incomplete _Magellan_ and _Salamis_ class warships that were the mainstay of the Earth Federation Space Force.

Though the base was usually active twenty-fours a day, this time, the base was unusually lively with the troops working literally day and night to finish their individual tasks. Meanwhile, the generals and admiral that lead this enormous force were busy in consultations with the political arm of the government.

In one of the large quarters, a Federation general sat at his desk looking up the latest intelligence reports and he had a grim look on his face and the cigar he was smoking did little to help ease the tension. He had been stuck in a meeting with other generals and the politicians for the last few hours arguing with them over the validity of the reports and though he could see the frightened looks on their faces, their bluster disgusted them that when he headed back to his quarters, he slammed the door shut with a very loud bang.

Now after a few drinks, he looked through the reports again to see if he wasn't missing anything and trying to think of ways to convince his superiors of the gravity of the situation that their foolish decisions were creating.

A knock on the door attracted his attention away from his reading and he walked to see who was at the door. It was his old colleague Vice-Admiral Tianamen, commander of a Federation fleet under his flagship the _Magellan_ class battleship _Titan_, who winced at the sight of the general, "Seems I caught you at a bad time, perhaps I should come back later".

Revil shook his head and replied, "I guess I could use someone to talk to right now". He ushered Tianem in and gave him a drink while refilling his own. They both made a toast, "To many more years of peace and good health to all men". After taking a huge gulp, Revil turned to his visitor and said, "So what brings you here at this time".

Tianem whistled quietly before stating, "First I wanted to come in and check in on you and plus I wanted to show you something I found out while on patrol". He immediately opened the package in his hands and spread the photos along the table". As soon as Revil looked at them, he turned to the Vice-Admiral who stated, "I already sent this to intelligence but since you know how they handle crisis such as this, I felt that I had to show you these pictures personally".

The grey-haired general took a deep breath before stating, "Thank you but I don't know if these will do any good in convincing the politicians to change their minds on the matter".

Tianem winced and stated, "So they haven't gone to a full alert yet"? Revil shook his head and Tianamen asked, "And about the reports of the new weapons Zeon has been fielding"?

Revil laughed a harsh laugh and replied, "The politicians don't want to create a panic just yet and also the scientists never want to believe that the "spacenoids" can design much better weapons than they can". He then replied, "With all of this, sometimes I have to agree with what they say in space about those that remain on Earth and I wish something could happen to those political bastards since they're making the lives of all humanity much harder to deal with".

Tianem replied, "It really does make you wonder how the hell humanity ever came to this point in time where the possibility of war is very real". He then looked back to his watch and replied, "I better get back to the _Titan, _I have to oversee some of the repairs and re-supply". They both shook hands before Revil commented, "The _Ananke_ is almost finished with her repairs and fitting out so I should join you shortly".

Once the Vice-Admiral departed, Revil turned to look at his notes for a few more minutes before taking a deep breath before calling it a night.

* * *

**Authors notes:**

I decided to start off like this since this is usually how I start off my stories so if there is anything wrong with this chapter then I apologize for not following the canon of either the MSG novel or the television series. Any advice on characters or technology would be appreciated.

You probably will see a mix of characters from both the show and the novels in here since from what I saw the beginnings of the OYW in both mediums looked pretty similar so expect to see some of those events here. Also, I'm wondering if I should ask some of the other authors, especially one by the name of Zinegata, whether I could use their characters in the story.

This has been a project that I thought about doing but put it aside to concentrate on the most recent Gundam shows (SEED and SEED Destiny) (to my horror and shame). After loosing the will to continue going on my former **_Gundam SEED fanfic: A war of darkness and sadness_**, I decided to truly begin this project in the hope of finding some answers, and redeeming myself in front of all of you.

Please read and review, I would be very appreciative if you do so. Also if you are going to post a review on please read my profile so as to get a good idea of who you'll be dealing with.

Next chapter: Approaching Zero-hour.


	2. Approaching ZeroHour

Chapter 2: Approaching Zero-Hour.

**Zeon base of Solomon:**

During the creation and expansion of the space colonies, the humans used enormous asteroids to power the construction and exploration of space. They also served as temporary resistance for the workers and their families but now with the threat of war hanging over the horizon, three of them served as huge military bases.

One of these bases was a huge diamond shape fortress by the name of Solomon. Orbiting near Side 2 and though somewhat incomplete, the landscape of the asteroid base juttered with scores of defenses and hanger bays to house the numerous warships that served the base. Flying around the area in a protective perimeter were scores of red Gattle fighters and large green humanoid mono-eyed machines by the name of Zakus.

Ever since the discovery of the Minovsky Particle and its implications on the nature of warfare, Zeon scientists had been researching ways to turn the particle to their advantage and soon they found it with the creation of an experimental fighter called the mobile suit. This new weapon took advantage of the fact that the Minovsky particle prevented use of radar based weapons, thereby nullifying the concept of long range combat.

The Zaku fulfilled the needs of a weapon designed for close range combat. It flew exceptionally fast and was able to maneuver itself in exceptionally tight corners, such as in an immense field of debris or a large group of warships fighting at point blank range. Combine this with a large complement of weapons; the Zaku contained the destructive power of a large battleship.

Like all new weapons of war, the Zaku contained several bugs. For one, maneuvering such machine that is in a humanoid shape was difficult even for the most experienced pilots. Also, they required a good amount of maintenance for such a complex machine frame. Despite this, the pilots that survived the strenuous training liked using the new machines and already a few of the better known pilots had created modifications to their personal suits, though all were still in the standard green.

In a large briefing room, the mobile suit pilots were all busy in conversations with each other as they discussed trivial matters. Many of them had been recent graduates and

Among them was a solitary blond haired young man who watched the scene before him with an icy calm look on his face. Strange especially about him was that he had a silver white mask on his face, which covered his eyes, every time anyone saw him. Still though, his piloting skills and his frankness impressed his colleagues and they ignored their musings about the mask.

A familiar voice shook him out of his brooding, "So there you are Char". The blond-haired man turned and smiled the speaker, Garma Zabi. They both served together in the academy together and Char Aznable was right behind Garma in terms of graduation. After that, they both served together in various postings, usually under Garma's older brother Dozle.

Char replied in an amicable tone, "So you're already back from Zum City I see, so how was it back there"?

Garma smiled and said, "It was nice to be back there after all this time". He then paused before saying, "Although the family reunion could have gone much better". He then leaned close and whispered, "Though my brother is going to announce it, I wanted you to know that what we've worked on may soon become a reality".

Behind the mask, Char's eyes widened in surprise. Though he knew sooner or later that war would break out and though he shared the Zabi's desire to destroy the Earth Federation, he never thought that it would be that soon. He asked Garma, "So how did Dozle take this".

Garma shrugged and replied, "He took it pretty well considering the circumstances although he cast his lot with Gihren". The young Zabi paused and twirled his purple hair for a moment before stating, "They already have plans drawn up for us".

Char nodded and replied calmly, "Now we get a chance to prove our skills to everyone". They both laughed in agreement and Char said to his former classmate, "Don't worry, you'll probably do very well like you did at the academy".

Garma replied, "Thanks for the compliment and I'd have to say the same for you". Garma had a suspicion that his friend was perhaps an even more skilled pilot than he displayed at the academy but he really didn't mind since what he really wanted was a command position and Char to be his 2nd in command, so the arrangement at the academy worked. He was about to resume but a flurry of voices attracted their attention to the front where Dozle Zabi had just entered and a large screen started to unveil behind the enormous admiral. Both immediately headed to the front row so that they could get a better view.

Dozle Zabi took a deep breath as he observed the room in front of him for a moment as if committing the image to memory. He took a deep breath before speaking, "Comrades, the day we've waited for has finally arrived". He smiled grimly before announcing to his subordinates, "We will finally be going to war with the Earth Federation".

The room began to fill with numerous murmurs among the pilots as they absorbed the news. Many of them had endured their fair share of discrimination and for those who were descendents of those that came from Earth; they were even more excited since they were disgusted with the behavior of the Earth Federation and decided to side with Zeon. Meanwhile both Char and Garma grimly smiled as they heard the news with both having different reasons for being impressed with the news. It took awhile for the room to calm down as the pilots returned to listening to the admiral as he continued to deliver the news

"When the New Year comes, the forces of Zeon will launch the war against the Federation in conjunction with our comrades from A Bao Qau". He then paused and stepped back so the pilots could see the map, "Our main targets are the Federation garrisons on each of the sides". He then paused before continuing, "Based on intelligence reports, so despite our faith in your skills, it is hoped that most of the fleet will be in the docks so we can achieve surprise and encounter less resistance". He then finished by stating, "Now the commanders will brief you with the details of the operation". Dozle soon stepped off of the podium and took his seat as his subordinate took over by detailing the plans each element had in the operation.

**Zeon base of A Bao Qau: **

Along with Solomon, the huge umbrella shaped fortress of A Bao Qau also served as a base for the Zeon space fleet. If Solomon presented nightmares for an attacker then A Bao Qau resembled hell on Earth since its surface was crawling with defenses in a way could focus an enormous amount of firepower in a very short period of time. The shape of the fortress along with the defenders allowed A Bao Qau to create a deadly crossfire zone around the base. The sight of the fortifications and the size of the base itself helped strengthen the belief of the garrison that they were invulnerable.

Inside the huge fortress, Kycilia had just finished her own briefing with her main subordinates and they had just started to depart. Taking a deep breath, she activated an intercom and replied, "Find out where M'Quve is and send him to my quarters immediately". She needed to discuss what she had talked with Gihren about the plan and M'Quve was one of the few people she felt would keep this a secret.

She waited for a few minutes before the door opened and a short dark-blue haired man appeared. He immediately smiled and said, "So how was your trip back home admiral".

Kycilia silently sneered at the man but said icily while handing him a folder, "Cut the pleasantries, I need you to see this immediately". She sat and waited while M'Quve read through the folder, his mouth moving to a slight smile as he continued to read it". After a few minutes, Kycilia asked impatiently, "Can you ensure that the equipment gets to where it needs to go"?

M'Quve handed the folder back to her before saying, "With complete secrecy I presume". Kycilia angrily nodded before M'Quve continued, "There will be some difficulties but it's nothing the others and I can't handle". He then paused before finishing, "But make sure to let those who are handling this know what they are doing".

Kycilia grunted and replied with a sting in her tone, "Don't worry, my brother Gihren will lend us some of **_his_** commanders who are specialists in the use of chemicals such as these and we've already have teams ready to use them".

Both knew what she meant by her statement, namely the Zeon Marines. Comprise of criminals, butchers, and the like, these units would have the least problems in dealing with committing an act of mass murder. M'Quve whispered somewhat jokingly, "I have to admit that they do seem to be well suited to such tasks".

Kycilia snarled before stating, "You have your orders so see that you carry them out". M'Quve bowed and immediately departed, leaving the Zabi woman alone with her thoughts and several maps in front of her. While Dozle dealt with two of the Sides, she had to deal not only with Side 1 and 5 but also with the moon itself, which intelligence reported would have strong defenses waiting over a large area, thereby dissipating her combat power.

**Magellan Class battleship _Anake_:**

Every time Revil looked at the stars from his flagship, he thanked himself that he always declined the promotion to work at Jaburo and thanked that he always made sure to stay at the underground base no longer than necessary. Being in space reminded him of the progress humanity has made thus far during the lifetime of the species and showed humanity at its best.

Now though it felt to Revil that the blackness of space represented the darkest pit of hell if the recent intelligence reports from patrols, within Zeon, and Side 6 proved true. The spies within Zeon and Side 6 had reported a mix of large meetings and negotiations, increased output of new weapons at the factories and most importantly, the departure of numerous ships from their berths. Meanwhile the fleet commanders such as Tianem and Commander Wakkein, and one of his trusted commanders in Side 2 (he commanded the Magellan class battleship _Amerigo_) reported numerous increases in Zeon fleet activity in their vicinity. Finally the scouts that dared get close enough reported that Zeon had transformed its two immense asteroid bases into virtual fortresses.

Right now the _Anake_ and her fleet of four _Magellans _and fifteen _Salamis_ were busy heading towards the Side 5 area to reinforce the garrison there. Although he had hoped for a quiet journey, Revil was pessimistic enough to order continual training exercises and to send a message to the others, hoping they would do the same although he wasn't sure of Wakkein's case. Though a good officer by any means, Commander Wakkein's behavior stank of the same bias against spacenoids Revil saw in his superiors at Jaburo. He just hoped Wakkein would fall in line with everyone else out here when the hammer dropped.

**Joint Command Headquarters, Zum City, December 31, UC 0078, 12:50 pm: **

Gihren Zabi watched with an intense stare at the enormous virtual map as it detailed the movements of the entire Zeon Space Fleet. It was indeed a huge undertaking and it reminded the supreme commander of the details he read about how the former Imperial Japanese Navy had pulled off the coordination of the infamous Southern Resources Area Operation during World War II in the Pacific.

Cecilia Irene walked up to stand beside him and they watched the scene before them for a few minutes before Gihren said to her, "Look at it all, the undertaking we're about to pull here is truly a display of what humanity could be at its best".

Cecilia smiled and said, "If you were to look in a mirror right now, it would resemble a boy about to get an enormous gift for Christmas in which you can use to humiliate everyone else".

Gihren smiled at her exact statement and replied, "Truly these are truly great days to be alive isn't it". He took her arms in his and they continued to watch for a moment before Gihren yelled to one of the communications officers, "Have we established a link throughout the entire Earth System on all frequencies". The communications officer nodded and Ghiren turned to look at the clock before whispering to Cecilia, "Shall we begin my dear".

Cecilia Irene smiled and replied, "Knock them dead". They both walked to the next room where Sovereign Degwin Zabi sat with a speech in his hand. The moment he saw Gihren, he asked, "Is everything ready in position". Gihren nodded and Degwin replied tiredly with a slight hint of anger, "Let's get this over then huh"? He then turned and waited for the signal to speak while Gihren took his place along with Cecilia to Degwin's right while a disheveled Prime Minister Darcia Bakharov took his place to Degwin's left.

**Gwaran, Zeon Space Attack Force, en route to Side 4: **

Throughout the immense Zeon space force, mechanics were busy rushing through the preparations of the Zakus while the pilots were undergoing their final pre-flight briefing checks. An air of excitement permeated the hangers that matched the excitement of Dozle as he observed the view of space in front of him from his flagship, the _Gwanzie_ class battleship _Gwaran_. He impatiently turned to look at his watch and said to no one in particular, "We should be launching in a minute or two".

In one of the locker rooms on the _Gwaran_, Char was busy putting his mask back on when Garma showed up in his own flight suit. The young Zabi replied, "So you think you're immortal eh Char".

Char replied, "No, it's just that I'm very sure of my skills and with no flight suit, I can ensure that I'll perform at my very best under any circumstances". He then joked, "Perhaps you should try it sometime so as to ensure that the men will respect you".

Garma took the joke and laughed quietly, "At the moment, I'll leave the heroics to you and my brother Dozle". He then paused before speaking in a solemn tone, "But really, I hope you have good hunting out there today".

The sincerity unnerved Char for a moment and he replied, "Same to you, in fact after this, we go out to the most expensive restaurant and get drunk and before you ask, its on me". They both shook hands on that before heading to the hanger were their Zakus and their fellow pilots awaited them. Among them were several elite pilots, including one with a long ponytail gray-white hair, who would soon become the scourge of the EFSF.

On the _Gwaran's_ bridge, Dozle Zabi watched intently as the hanger bay doors started to open and soon scores of Zakus (both MS-05B Zaku I and MS-06C Zaku II) and their accompanying Gattle fighters roared out into the stars. True to his nature, especially after seeing Char and Garma launching together in their MS-06C Zakus , Dozle whispered to them all wistfully, "Good luck and good hunting and come back alive".

****

**_Gwanzine_, Zeon Mobile Corps, near Side 2**

Kycilia watched intently from the bridge of her flagship, the _Gwanzine_, as the mobile suits in her fleet started launching into the stars along with their accompanying fighters. Among them were three black MS-06C Zakus and a blue MS-05 Zaku I which was accompanied by several small shuttles full of assault troops. She smiled grimly as she knew who was flying that Blue Zaku, "So you're at it again in proving your theories eh Ramba Ral". She put that thought aside and turned to her subordinates, "After my father makes his speech, all ships are to commencing covering fire for our suits until they reach their targets and then engage individually". Her subordinates nodded and she turned to watch the view in front of her, muttering the exact same words Gihren and soon several Federation officers would mutter when the bombs started to drop, "So it finally begins".

* * *

Authors Notes

If you look carefully, I did attempt to integrate some of elements of the novel into my story here, mainly the description of A Bao Qau.

As you can see, I directly introduced Char Aznable and M'Quve for the Zeon side and Wakkein for the Federation. I also made discrete references to some of the other pilots such as Anavel Gato, the Black Tri-Stars, Cima Garahau and her marines, etc. In the next chapter, you'll probably introduce to more of the main Zeon pilots such as Johnny Ridden, Shin Matsunaga, etc. I am trying to introduce as much people as I can without going overkill here (I'm surprised that I haven't gone overkill as of yet).

Since all hell is about to break loose, how should I proceed. Should I do small snippets of battle at each of the sides or should I dedicate each chapter to each Side area.

The only reason why Kycilia is using A Bao Qau is because well Granada hasn't fallen into Zeon hands yet.


	3. Rise of aces

Chapter 3: The rise of aces.

**EFSF Repulse, Located in Side 4, December 31, UC 0078, 12:55PM: **

As with the traditions of navies past, the Federation fleet was in stand down mode, which allowed for the commanders and the crews to take shore leave in the respective areas of the sides. Thereby, most ships were in their moorings with a minimal number of crew at their stations while the celebrated New Years Eve with the population of the Sides.

Among the people enjoying the festivities and rest was the command of Rear Admiral Krakel, the commander of the Side 4 fleet. He sat in his quarters reading up on some of the novels he had on his bookshelf. Though the admiral was a good officer, he was very contemptuous of the spacenoids of Zeon and therefore mostly ignored the messages sent from both Jaburo and Revil. Though he thought Revil was too alarmist and was inclined to ignore the order, Krakel had no choice but to follow Jaburo's instructions. Therefore, he allowed a few of the captains of the _Salamis_ class cruisers to commence a defensive patrol and had other ships standing by if a situation started to develop.

He was about to go get another round of his drink when an alarm suddenly rang out throughout the ship. Angry at having his peace disturbed, Krakel ran through the corridors to the bridge of the _Repulse_. He arrived to see the officers scurrying around as if the end of humanity was upon them, "What's going on here".

One of the harried communications officers replied, "Sir, one of our cruisers has spotted large numbers of specks which resembled Zeon fighters heading this way". He then paused before stating, "We also have large numbers of warships heading in our direction".

Krakel was about to issue his orders when suddenly, the view screens changed to show Degwin Sodo Zabi along with his eldest son and the civilian government of Zeon. Degwin was busy reading off a message but in the confusion that was occurring; every Federation officer who heard it knew what it meant. Zeon had taken the plunge and decided on war.

Once the broadcast ended, there was a second of silence before of the radar operators yelled out, "Sir, our _Salamis_ class cruisers are encountering heavy resistance and desperately need help fast". He then winced as he heard on the command net, "We just lost two and three more are about to go".

Krakel angrily gritted his teeth and yelled out, "All hands to battlestations prepare the Saberfish and arm weapons". He sat in his chair as the huge ship struggled to move away from the docks. Even from that distance, he and the entire bridge crew could see the patrol ships fighting vainly for their very lives".

**One of the Side 4 colonies: **

Although each Side had a Federation fleet to guard it, they also had militias that served each individual colony in the sides. In a time of war, the militias would send out their fighter squadrons while sending in colony troops to maintain order. Although somewhat poor in comparison to the Federation fleet, the militias were well equipped but somewhat badly trained.

As soon as the broadcast of the Zeon declaration of war ended, the populations within the colonies started to go haywire with panicked people making their way to the shelters or to the dockyards to try and escape. Meanwhile those that served in the militias tried to report to their units but the chaos hampered movements. Despite that, several Federation squadrons managed to launch from their home colonies right into the middle of hell. Among these squadrons was the 185th Saberfish squadron led by Mordechai von Schiff. "All right people, this is the real deal! We're now at war; so saddle up!" He yelled to his pilots as they all scrambled to their fighters.

One of the pilots was a young local from the colony the squadron was stationed at. His short, dark brown hair swayed as he floated to his Saberfish while his face remained, surprisingly, calm. After he got into his cockpit and closed it, he fastened his restraints and readied himself for the G forces that would follow his launch. "This is Lieutenant Sullivan, I'm taking off!" With that, his Saberfish launched from his home colony into the depths of space.

**Zeon MS squadrons, January 1, 0079:**

Though somewhat surprised to encounter enemy warships on station so quickly, the MS squadrons and the _Musai_ class cruisers quickly disposed the _Salamis_ cruiser patrol screen and the Zakus were now roaring towards the colonies and the scrambling Federation space fleets guarding the colonies. Among them, Char Aznable and Garma Zabi flew side by side towards a large group of warships, which included two _Magellans_ and a large swarm of Saberfish fighters protecting the Federation warships.

As they closed in along with several others Zakus, Char tightened the grip on his controls as he remarked to Garma, "So what do you feel like hunting today"?

The voice on the other end of the line replied, "Well I know you wanted to bag a few ships but I also have those targets in mind and have targets locked in on them". He paused before continuing, "I was hoping if you can keep the fighters off my back while I go for one of the _Magellans_".

Char grumbled but took it good naturedly as he replied, "All right we might as well start somewhere". A sudden wave of explosions occurred and both MS pilots headed to work with Garma already swinging his 280mm bazooka around to aim at a _Salamis_ blocking his way. Meanwhile, Char headed off to engage the fighters with his 120mm rifle.

Soon, separate engagements occurred all over the colony side as the two forces slammed into each other. Within moments, the Federation fighter force found itself outmaneuvered by the faster Zakus. Even though the vast emptiness of space enhanced the maneuverability of the Saberfishs, the Zakus had them beat as they instantly flew out of the way of the Saberfish fighters before the Federation pilots could lock onto them. But that was not the worst part for as the Saberfishs attempted to use their radar guided missiles, they found to their horror that their radar screens turned to static, nullifying perhaps their best advantage against the Zeon humanoid machines.

Though standing off to the side, the Zeon fleet delivered wave after wave at their foes, trying to cut them down before reinforcements arrived. The _Musais_ performed superbly against their _Salamis_ counterparts since they could bring in **_all_** of their guns on the blue-gray cruisers while they could bring only three turrets onto their green-counterparts. However, the Federation _Magellans_ were proving much harder to engage for they could bring in an enormous amount of weaponry in all directions and their anti-aircraft weapons gave many Zaku pilots pause. Only the well trained pilots (mainly squadron leaders) attacked the huge warships head on.

Char plunged headlong into a wing of Federation fighters that had departed their Federation ships along with several accompanying Zakus. He started to spray a wave of machine gunfire into his assailants, killing four with the first volley and scattering the rest of the force. He then turned around and fired another burst at the fighters, killing two and causing the remaining four to scatter.

Suddenly, his suit's warning system started ringing and he spotted three groups of three Saberfish fighters heading towards him with machine guns blazing. Despite the volume of fire, he deftly avoided his assailants and fired back but this time, only two went down while the others flew back in on the attack.

Char winced for a moment at the apparent bravery of the Federation fighters but smiled and headed towards them, clearly looking for a challenge in this developing firefight. He reloaded his rife and headed towards them at full throttle and the range closed frighteningly to the point where the Saberfish immediately and instinctively launched missiles. Since the radar systems were offline and the pilots had badly aimed their missiles, Char easily maneuvered by them and immediately squeezed off a return burst at his assailants. The small dogfight occurred for a few more minutes before Char scored a critical hit on the Saberfish fighters, forcing them to break off.

Meanwhile, Garma Zabi, accompanied by several other Zakus on the express order of Dozle himself, flew in towards the _Magellan_ while avoiding its fearsome firepower. He already had his bazooka armed and fired several shots that destroyed three large turrets and the Magellan's forward missile launcher. The other Zakus used their rifles to cover Garma as he flew towards the bridge of the crippled warship. He grinned at the sight of the frightened bridge crew before firing a bazooka shot into the bridge, killing the entire crew and starting a chain reaction that sent the wrecked hulk colliding into a _Salamis_ firing its beam weapons at the Zeon fleet.

Even though he was busy dealing with the Saberfish fighters, Char smirked when he spotted Garma scoring his kills. The sound of bullets brought his attention back and he continued to trade shots with the Saberfish fighters before deciding that it was his turn. He contacted Garma on the communications net, "Since you had your fun, I think its time that I'd score some ship kills for my own". The voice on the other end laughed and replied, "Well it seems you've been busy huh"? Char nodded and immediately jetted away towards another group of Federation warships with several of the Saberfish fighters in reckless pursuit. They almost caught up with him when a wave of 120mm machine gunfire cut more of them to pieces and forced to rest to break off. They all turned to see Garma's Zaku coming in at them and broke to regroup as Garma fired a burst of his 120mm rifle at the Saberfish squadrons.

Meanwhile, Char switched to his bazooka and started to fly in towards the Federation warships that Garma was attacking earlier. This time though, the defensive firepower was much more lethal and Char had some close calls but surprisingly, his skills and his instincts served him well as his Zaku maneuvered through the flak at speeds that stunned his fellow pilots, Garma included. As soon as he got close enough, he started to fire rapidly at the _Magellan_, knocking out its defenses in short order while he flew towards the bridge, incinerating it and the _Magellan_ in a large fireball with a point blank bazooka shot. Smirking, he fired one more shot of his bazooka towards a _Salamis_ class cruiser before he flew back to link up with Garma while taking out targets along the way.

However, despite the success of the mobile suit pilots, they also suffered heavily as well as the sheer number of foes and the sheer volume of fire started to inflict casualties on the Zeon fleet. Dozle gritted his teeth in anger as he saw several of his ships explode from well aimed missiles from a few Federation fighters and beam blasts from the _Magellans_.

As he saw another _Chivvay_ explode from the direct hits of a _Magellan_, Dozle swore and turned to one of his subordinates, "I thought the scientists said that the Minovsky particle jamming would prevent them from hurting us". The subordinate winced under Dozle's enormous form and angry state as he attempted to form a response. Dozle gritted his teeth in anger and turned to the bridge crew, "Signal all ships to arm their nukes and warn our pilots to clear a path. He then headed down towards the hanger deck, to the worry of the rest of the crew.

**Side 4 Garrison Units, January 2, 0079. **

Being surprised especially in the midst of such an important holiday, even with warnings of war, can really impede a fighting force's capabilities as the soldiers attempted to recover from the shock of a sudden surprise assault. Right, now the performance of the Federation forces in Side 4 was pitiful at best as they tried to cope with the unexpected situation of fighting nearly blind against new weapons while in the midst of enormous civilian colonies.

Already the sight of death and destruction all around them unnerved many of the green pilots and it took all the mental control of the NCOs to keep their men in line. Some of the captains of the warships even considered breaking off and retreating themselves but they decided against it.

The ships already out there as well as those that recently departed port had their hands full trying to stay alive for it seemed everything was going wrong. Their radar systems and guided weapons proved useless and their fighter cover provided miniscule protection against the new humanoid fighters, in fact the Saberfish fighters attempted to use the warships, especially the _Magellans_ as bait, in order to deceive their torments and gain some breathing room, with some measure of success. Finally, they were fighting in close quarters with civilian colonies right behind them, creating an ugly obstacle course that would have stunned even the harshest instructor.

Without the use of their radar systems, the pilots had to rely on their eyes in the infinite blackness of space, which the chaos of battle lit up from time to time. Many attempted to regroup with their brethren so that they could stand a much better chance when engaging the new Zeon weapons. Unfortunately, the Zeon MS pilots proved much faster at killing them before they could assemble into the large groups necessary to survive against the MS-06C Zakus.

On the bridge of the _Repulse_, Rear Admiral Krakkel and his staff struggled to direct their forces in this mad chaos. At the same time they tried to contact higher headquarters but it was fruitless as the Zeon jamming proved brutally effective. The _Repulse_ shook herself as several Zakus started attacking her with their 120mm rifles. The other ships attempted to assist but within minutes, the marauding Zakus cut three more _Salamis_ class cruisers to pieces.

Meanwhile, the surviving ships that were at the front of the battle started to finally inflict hits upon the Zeon fleet with several beam blast destroying the _Musai _and_ Chivvay_ class cruisers with expert sharp shooting. Several of the smaller missile boats as well as swarms of Gattle fighter bombers flew in to take the ships out but the firepower they threw up cut through their ranks while the few fighters that survive the onslaught of the Zakus were able to engage them on **equal** terms.

The captains on the ships managed to take deep breaths as their respective ships shuddered under the blows and they spoke their thanks to whoever thought that it was not their time to go. However, their time would arrive very soon for the Zeon ships had just finished unlocking their WMD inventories and were preparing to preparing to use them.

**Gwaran**

As Dozle Zabi launched out in his own MS-06C Zaku II, he finally managed to get a ring-side seat to the battlefield and what he saw stunned him and reminded him that there was no substitute for first hand viewing of the battlefield. For although his forces did inflict a large number of casualties upon the Earth Federation forces, their foes were also doing a good job of hurting back despite their disadvantages. Furthermore, they were causing numerous delays that would prove fatal if not dealt with quickly. He activated his link with the bridge of the _Gwaran_ and yelled out, "Get ready to fire out nukes".

On the bridge of the _Gwanzine_ class battleship, the bridge crew hurried to their stations as the huge warship and its accompanying escorts started to move forward to close the range. The _Chivvays_ started to blaze away as they had guns located all over the hull. The moment the lead ships reached the maximum range of their targets, they started firing several wave of missiles towards the Federation Fleet and the colonies.

**Space around Side 4**

Though they were busy trying to kill as many of their opponents as fast as they could, Char, Garma, and the other pilots had the good sense to check the entire battlefield around them and once they spotted the missiles and scanned their cargo, literally everyone flew out of the way as fast as their engines could push them for no one wanted to get caught in the shockwave. Everyone closed their eyes and the more solemn pilots whispered a silent prayer in regards to the carnage about to follow.

The Federation forces were somewhat surprised as they saw the Zeon forces started to retreat and started to wonder what was going on. Unfortunately they would have an answer in the most spectacularly devastating way possible as the missiles reached their targets and their warheads detonated.

Inside the colonies, the panic and mayhem rose to an even higher crescendo as terrified civilians attempted to escape to whatever safety they preferred. When they saw the flashes in the artificial sky, they wondered for a few seconds before the numerous white lights engulfed them in its searing blaze and heat.

For those that managed to get out and join the fight, the battlefield turned into a nut house as scores of nuclear weapons detonated among the, slaughtering people by the **_millions_**. And it was not over as the survivors spotted another wave and many attempted to maneuver and shoot them down but it was useless as the missiles detonated again adding more souls to the ghastly death toll.

The _Repulse_ was one of the lucky survivors. As the bridge crew attempted to regain their footing, despite all of the explosions, their eyes widened at a horrific sight. For as far the eye could see death lay everywhere in space. Several colonies had virtually melted due to the extreme heat while the rest broke apart, spilling millions more into instant death in the cold vacuum. Destroyed ships floated all around with many literally melted and some still tied to the piers of the destroyed colonies while others burned for a while before exploding.

After a few moments of trying to comprehend the scale of the devastation, the whole bridge swarmed with activity as the crew attempted to regain control of the situation. As more nuclear weapons continued to wreck the colony cylinders as well as their forces, Admiral Krakkel turned to his communications officer, "Signal all Federation commands, Zeon use of nuclear weapons confirmed". Meanwhile the captain of the _Repulse_ immediately issued orders to ready the use of their own nuclear weapons although it was plainly clear that there was nothing they could do now. Already, they could see several pitiful survivors attempting to turn around and escape from the inferno. To the surprise of the surviving Federation forces in the area, they saw that several shuttles launched from the destroyed colonies. Despite the horror, or perhaps because of it, several of the Saberfish broke positions and headed to circle around as many civilian ships as possible. Seeing all of this, Krakkel took a deep breath before replying out the order's he despised giving, "Signal all survivors to break off and retreat to Luna II". Everyone looked at him in shock before several explosions on the _Repulse_ herself gave truth to the admiral's statement.

On the Zeon side, the troops attempted to come to grips with the hellish carnage that they unleashed. Though many were pleased at the sight, there were some more thoughtful ones that were horrified at the scale of the destruction. The brooding of the troops was cut short as Dozle screamed over the radio from his Zaku, "All forces commence pursuit of the Federation forces; Zaku units are to head to the colonies and activate the G3 gas.

As several MS-05B Zaku I broke off and headed towards the colonies, the rest ignited their engines and headed for the broken remnants of the Side 4 Garrison Fleet. The ships started to fire rapidly to keep the Zakus off of the refuge ships as they began the tortuous journey away from Side 4. Unfortunately, the Zakus moved much faster than the defensive fire and soon they managed to slip close enough to take potshots at the makeshift convoy. Soon more ships fell to the combined barrage of the suits and the Zeon warships firing their weapons in support. The Saberfish fighters attempted to intervene but the battlefield presented them two ugly alternatives: advance forward and risk getting the transports destroyed or continue to circle them, exposing themselves to more dangers but giving the civilians the chance to escape.

Dozle himself joined in the party when he spotted the ships and started spraying them with machine gun fire, killing several fighters and one of the larger refuge ships. He immediately gunned his engines to dodge a sudden level of defensive fire thrown up, while continuing to exchange fire with the fighters and ships. The sight of him literally going at it with a larger force and staying alive for as long as he did impressed many people for they knew now that despite being a Zabi, he was also a true soldier. Despite their exhaustion at the unanticipated intensity and savagery of the fighting, they dove back into the attack in support of their commander.

Back within the devastated colonies, the cylinders remained deathly quiet as the frightened population wondered what would happen to them with Zeon in control. Many hoped that their captors would spare them and they could continue their lives but unfortunately the Zeon military already decided their grisly fate.

The MS-05Bs swarmed all over the colony cylinders with some hauling large cylindrical cargo towards specific locations throughout the colony. Once the Zakus hauled their cargo into position, one of them pressed a button and the meters on the cylinders started to drop down to empty as they unleashed a greenish gas into the ventilation systems of the colonies.

Inside the shelters, the remaining civilians felt some sense of safety from the horror outside but they became deathtraps once the gas started to seep through the different sectors of each colony. Once the G3 gas started to filter in, its victims started suffering the side effects similar to the Zyklon B used by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

From their Saberfish fighters, the pilots of the colony militias watched in horror as the new Zeon machines massacred their loved ones without venturing inside. Some recklessly broke position and the Zakus immediately destroyed them while the rest held back for while they could do nothing for their loved ones inside the colonies, they could at least shepherded those that managed to escape to safety.

Soon the fighting began to die down and as the last of the Federation warships struggled to flee from the battlefield, Dozle started to check the status of his forces and what he saw stunned him. For it seemed that the battle had not gone completely Zeon's way as he saw not only the damage the ships endured but the losses the mobile suit teams suffered. Though the new weapons performed well for their first outing, they suffered harsh losses and the fighting had annihilated several squadrons, some of them within the first twenty minutes of battle. Dozle set those thoughts aside as he contacted the _Gwaran_, "Have the ships with the special cargo arrived yet"?

The XO replied with a touch of relief for his boss's safety, "The _Papuas_ and the _Pazocks_ ships have arrived and are heading towards the designated colony". He then paused before continuing, "It may take the better part of a day to place the engines correctly and then we have to wait for the rest of the fleet before proceeding".

Dozle nodded before singing off and said to himself, "Now I wonder how my sister is doing"? He smiled in relief as he spotted his little brother's Zaku, his face dropping into a frown as he saw Char's Zaku flying right alongside it.

On the two respective suits, both pilots took deep breaths to calm themselves after the horror they faced. Despite the fact that they fought well and scored many kills, they were as inexperienced in battle as the next batch of recruits to leave the academy. After a moment Garma remarked, "I know that battle is supposed to be harsh but I would never imagine it would be this harsh".

Char remarked back, "Having second thoughts about latter goals in life"? Garma humped but then Char added in a sullen tone, "Still I don't blame you for speaking your thoughts". It was more than that for the images started to assault the blond-haired man's consciousness, troubling him for a moment before shaking it off and whispering silently in a tense tone, "All of this will pay off once I get my shot". He then looked at both Garma and Dozle before turning back to flying his suit back for repairs for the next mission.

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Authors notes:

I took the name of the commander of the Side 4 garrison from the MSG novels since as I stated before, my fanfic will have characters from _both_ the novels and the actual show itself.

The name of the flagship of the Side 4 Garrison fleet, _Repulse_, is based on a World War I British battle cruiser that went down in the South Pacific during the early days of World War II in the Pacific due to Japanese aircraft.

As you can see, there are cameos by several characters in other well known UC fanfic. For this, I thank SulliMike23 for lending me use of hisand for those who wish to contribute their characters from their own fanfics into mine are welcome to send their request in. I'll probably send in rough incomplete drafts to specific authors so they could contribute if they so wish.

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Author questions:

How did I do in portraying this particular battle and how well do I got the weapons down?

How well did I do on the characters of the fanfic?

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Next stop: Side 2.

As always, please read and review


	4. Firefight in Side 2:

Chapter 4: Firefight in Side 2:

**Side 2 area, December 31, UC 0078, ****11:58pm**

Like all of the other colony clusters, the Federation garrison was at peacetime maneuvers with many ships docked at their piers and the militia units patrolling to keep the anticipated New Years celebrations safe. Ironically though, most of the crews were on their ships and although there was a party atmosphere, some of the captains had prevented their crews from disembarking and had their engines on standby. For Side 2 had a good portion of officers loyal to General Revil and many of those officers had kept an eye on developments between Zeon and the Earth Federation with worry about the future. Unfortunately, the higher-ups were the same jackasses that one would find throughout the Earth Federation Government. In fact, the same jackasses allowed only one group lead by the Magellan class battleship _Amerigo_ to patrol the area with a few other ships on standby. The rest of the ships laid at their piers with most of their crews on shore leave.

On the _Magellan_ class battleship EFSF _Oklahoma_, the command staff of the Side 2 garrison fleet celebrated the New Year with lots of food and wine. For them, to have important parties such as this gave them reprieve from having to maintain constant patrols over those they felt inferior. Many of them had been away from Earth for many months and felt that their tours of duty felt like a waste of time, especially Side 2's commander, Rear-Admiral Mark Fowler. Therefore nearly all stations were empty when the warnings started coming in on the outer radar screens of intruders approaching. Soon the _Amergio_ group also sent a warning but unfortunately, the command staff shrugged it off as an annoyance.

As everyone celebrated and counted down the clock to the New Year, they were to get a horrific present as instead of a large holographic silver ball dropping off of a pole, they got the image of an angry, handsome silver haired man on a podium surrounded by other men and women, all of them in uniforms of the Zeon government and military. Rear-Admiral Fowler's eyes as well as that of his command staff opened wide as they heard the words of Supreme Commander Gihren Zabi reading the declaration of war. Once that immediately ceased after a three second outburst, a harried radio operator ran into the room and activated a switch before turning to the others, "Sir, the _Amerigo_ squadron under Colonel Dolvich as encountered the enemy and they're meeting heavy resistance", "Also they report heavy jamming".

Fowler swore and said angrily to the officer with the others listening in, "Are you sure that what they say is true"? Another officer nodded in agreement with the admiral and said into the radio to the beleaguered Federation group, "You must be insane, the broadcast could not have".

An explosion followed by a frightened woman's scream silenced any further arguing and Fowler, despite not believing it himself, said into the radio very calmly, "We'll be ready in five minutes, hold them". He then turned to the rest of the command staff and replied, "Order all ships to launch as soon as they can". The stunned and confused command staff ran off while the admiral looked off into an endless night sky that suddenly started to become brighter and dangerous.

**Zeon fleet: **

As he observed the sight of Side 2 before him, Lt General Dannigan smiled at the panic his fleet caused. After observing the poor state of readiness of his foes, he radioed to his ships, "Accelerate to attack speed and commence general destruction of enemy forces".

His forces were well on their way to fulfilling the general's wish, especially the new Zaku mobile suits. A few Saberfish fighters screamed in from the Federation patrol group to intercept them but the Zakus, using their 120mm machine gun cannon rifles easily disposed of the Saberfish fighters as the humanoid machines continued on.

Following right behind them was the Zeon fleet with _Musais_ and smaller ships in the front and the _Chivvays_ in the middle. The _Musais_ already had targets zeroed in and were firing long range shots at their assigned targets. Within a minute, several beam blasts destroyed a Salamis class cruiser and inflicted damage on the other ships.

As a group of Zakus detached themselves to deal with the forward group, the others fanned out across the colony cluster, blasting both fixed defenses and Saberfish fighters that managed to launch in time from the colony cylinders. Soon hundreds of dogfights broke out as the surprised and disorganized Earth Federation Forces struggled to fight back.

Among the Zaku pilots were several pilots who had distinguished themselves at the Zeon academy. Although not up to the level of that of Char Aznable, their piloting skills stunned their peers and ensured rapid promotion, despite that they were only trainees like everyone else. Now they as well as their superiors were about to find out if the easy promotion in rank was well earned.

Both Johnny Ridden and Shin Matsunaga flew side by side as they plunged headlong into a group of fighters heading up from a nearby colony. After acquiring a target, each Zaku fired off a quick burst that often resulted in the target fighter exploding. They along with many others continued this process as they hoped to kill more before the EFF brought numbers to bear. After a moment, they split apart, each leading a group of Zakus towards different targets.

In another part of the battlefield, a group of MS-06C Zaku IIs headed towards a recently departing Federation squadron. Leading them was a MS-05 Zaku I and the suits escorted a group of small ships filled to the gunwales with assault troops.

As soon as the Zeon MS group approached close enough, the Federation ships responded with a vicious hail of AA fire that caught two Zakus and an assault ship by surprise. The others split up with the MS-06Cs providing cover while the MS-05 I and the assault ships continued to bore in on their targets.

The surprised gunners tried to target the assault vessels but the Zakus provided effective cover and soon the ships were to close for accurate firing. Each assault ship attached itself on its target vessel and Zeon infantry spilled out, many armed with rifles and some armed with explosives. While the infantrymen scampered all around, knocking defenses as they went, the engineers hauled their explosives onto gun turrets, missile holes or the engines. Once they placed the explosives, the troops rocketed back to the awaiting Zakus and soon the bombs detonated, taking out two _Magellans_ and several _Salamis_.

Inside the huge colony cylinders, panic regained all around as the word spread of the battle outside. The resulting chaos had an unexpected benefit as it prevented Earth Federation troops from returning to their ships as well as delaying their departure. The militia fighter wings from the colonies had no such problems as they roared out of their home bases but most suffered from poor training and suffered even more harshly at the hands of the Zakus than their Earth Federation Forces counterparts.

Soon enough of the Zakus penetrated the Saberfish screen to commence attacks on the rest of the ships as they detached themselves from their piers. After seeing the results done to their sisters, the gunners were eager to settle the score and they managed to kill several more Zakus with a savage barrage. That was all they could do before the Zakus split up into teams to engage them.

Despite the savage horror many of the pilots felt, they attempted to engage their foes according to what their instructors taught them at the academy. The Zakus spread out knocking out the main guns of the target warship before going for the vulnerable areas. It proved possible with the _Salamis_ class cruisers due to their lack of AA protection. Many fell to this tactic and the Zeon mobile suits caught at least two so close to their home colonies that once the bridge was destroyed, they started to drift before slamming into the enormous steel cylinders, spilling people out into the black void of instant death by the millions.

The _Magellans_ proved harder to crack as by operating together, their combined anti-aircraft fire gave them better protection against the Zakus, driving many of the more green pilots off and leaving the more "experienced" pilots to tackle them. They would deliver spectacularly.

Johnny Ridden flew around for a moment while observing the view in front of him. After figuring out an attack plan, he suddenly accelerated his engines to full power and headed straight down the throats of two Federation battleships fighting side by side. As the gunners attempted to focus on them, he suddenly accelerated and flew almost right in between the two ships, nearly exposing himself to vicious danger as the guns attempted to shoot him down while he peppered both ships with his 120mm machine gun while dealing with the intense g-forces such a maneuver provided. As he flew to the rear of both ships, Ridden smiled at the handiwork and threw a cracker grenade that showered both ships with fragments, destroying both of them in a single blast. Smirking at the result, he flew off to engage more targets.

Shin Matsunaga meanwhile had switched to his 280 mm bazooka and dove for the attack against a Magellan and three Salamis class cruisers. Knowing full well the bazooka only had four clips per magazine the Asian pilot grinned at the challenge and aimed while avoiding the withering hail of anti-aircraft fire. With one shot aimed at each ship, he killed them all with accurate shots to their vulnerable areas, their explosions raining shrapnel all over the area.

A sudden round of energy fire attracted his attention and he saw a _Salamis_ class cruiser approaching at full speed. He said quietly, "For your foolish bravery you will die you pathetic fools". He activated his heat hawk and dove right at the Federation cruiser with the hand-held weapon raised.

The gunners were stunned at the apparent insanity of the pilot of the lone machine and they attempted to kill the intruder but in about a few seconds it was above them, its thick metal feet leaving an enormous foot print in the hull. They started to rush out of their stations in fear as the lone Zaku wrecked the ship while heading towards the bridge, its mono-eye glowing red with hate. It focused on the frightened bridge crew as the green-humanoid machine destroyed it with his heat hawk. Matsunaga activated his engines and rocketed away as the Salamis class cruiser ignited in a ball of fire.

Despite the success of Ridden, Matsunaga, Ramba Ral and others like them, the battle had somewhat transformed into a stalemate. Though the Zeon still the numerical advantage, General Dannigan knew that it would decrease soon and felt it was time to use his other ace-in-the hole. Plus, despite being taken by surprise, the Federation Forces fought hard and casualties among his mobile suit forces were surprisingly very high with some virtually annihilated in the first few minutes. Realizing the need to use a trusted ace-in-the hole at this very moment, he turned to an aide and said, "Order the crews to arm the missiles and prepare to fire a spread".

**EFSF ****Oklahoma****, January 3, UC 0079: **

From the view of the main bridge, Fowler and the rest of the command staff watched the battle playing outside twenty-four hours straight for the last two days. The numerous explosions all over space gave everyone a very good view. They spotted the first few ships attempting to engage Zeon warships but most of their time, their energy fire flew wide off the mark. Fortunately, what targets the ships managed to score hits on did fearsome damage with a few exploding. The Zeon ships on the other hand, scored more hits than their Federation counterparts and at point blank range, which was more than what the Magellan's thick armor could withstand.

The _Oklahoma_ herself had just cleared its own pier and its main guns were already active in trying to engage Zeon ships while its fighters attempted to keep the Zeon fighters off her. Soon other ships joined up with her as they all traded long range fire against their Zeon counterparts with no noticeable success. The huge Magellan class warship shook as several beam blasts impacted on her hull but she held together.

What concerned the crew the most were the scattered reports from the resistance the forward elements were encountering. Combine that with the immense radar interference all the Federation units encountered when they closed in to engage sent shivers down everyone's spine as they contemplated the thought of the supposed inferior spacenoids actually gaining a technological advantage over Earth. As he spotted the Zeon fighters blowing another _Magellan_ to pieces, the rear-admiral cursed aloud to his fellow officers, "Order our units to apply all necessary methods to fight off those bastards as best they can and tell the rest to speed up their departures".

This started an angry conversation among the officers as they attempted to argue about the admiral's decision with some advocating a full retreat while others, mainly the hard-liners sided with the admiral. Unfortunately, that diverted their attention from the deteriorating situation and therefore the oncoming danger. It announced itself as an enormous shockwave shook the ship and forced everyone to turn and see enormous white fireballs in front of them. Everyone knew instantly what had just happened but before Admiral Fowler could utter an order, a nuclear missile slammed into _Oklahoma_, incinerating it as well as nearby warships and several more colonies.

As soon as the white lights cleared away, the destruction was clear for all to see. The wrecked hulls of destroyed warships floated all around the destroyed cylinders. Most importantly, scores of corpses swarmed the area, their faces showing fear and sadness at the horror fate forced them to suffer. The sight was enough to chill the more "sensitive" Zeon soldiers and fortunately, there were few that kept their mouths shut while the rest, especially some of the "specialists" from Zeon itself smiled at their handiwork.

After observing the relative peace for a few more minutes, Dannigan then transferred his command to one of Gihren's specialists replied his orders, "Mop up the surviving enemy units, exterminate all remaining colonial cylinders and then rendezvous with the others at Side 4. His _Chivvay_ class cruiser broke off formation and headed off towards Side 4 at maximum burn while the rest of the fleet spread out and dropped large canisters armed with the G3 gas, which the Zakus soon dragged towards the metal cylinders, which instantly transformed into tombs for millions.

The destruction of the _Oklahoma_ as well as most of the Side 2 fleet still tied to the docks ensured the isolation of the rest of the units as they realized that they were now alone. Some of the groups decided to commit themselves onto kamikaze missions and they bore in on their foes, especially the ones armed with the gas canisters, at full speed and weapons blazing. They only lasted for a few seconds as the covering Zeon units turned all of their weapons on them. Other ships such as the _Amerigo_ attempted to fight their way out as they realized the enormity of the disaster and the hopeless of staying around any longer.

Unfortunately, the Zeon fleet was still eager for combat and it forced each of the separate feeling elements to fight their way through roving combined bands of Zakus and _Musais_. It took savage skill, guile, and luck for the solitary ships to escape and among those that survived the hell of Side 2 was the _Amerigo_, an accompanying Salamis cruiser and a single Saberfish fighter. With all heavily damaged, the survivors set course for Luna 2, currently the safe test port in all of the Earth System.

Soon the battlefield began to die down and the Zeon forces took stock of the situation. The battle had gone almost according to plan with the extension of the defense perimeter and the acquisition of new colonies to use as potential missiles against the cradle of humanity. Also, it had given new experience to the use of the wonder weapons Zeon was banking on to win against the numerically superior Earth Federation. As Shin Matsunaga, Johnny Ridden, Ramba Ral and the other pilots flew back to their ships; they had every reason to be proud with their success, especially Ramba Ral as he used an unheard of new tactic with superb results.

Surprisingly though, the butchers bill was enormously high with a good portion of the mobile suit squadrons virtually destroyed. Throughout history, the battlefield had proven to be the most brutal form of the Darwinian process and this was no different as the number of those that bore arms and died on both sides outnumbered the living by an enormous margin.

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Author's notes: 

1. _Oklahoma_ was one of the eight US battleships on December 7, 1941. She took numerous torpedo hits and eventually capsized in the harbor. After being raised from the harbor mud, she was scrapped in 1944.

2. As you can see, this has references to the Gundam UC fanfic "The Forgotten Fleet" which is still one of the all time Gundam fanfics and I credit this fanfic as well as the Gundam OVA Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory with persuading me to give UC Gundam another shot after the disappointments of the original MSG and 08th MS team.

3. I tried to vary the battle in Side 2 a little bit with that of Side 4 with that the scramble time for the forces of Side 2 even slower as well as destroying the flagship of the Side 2 garrison fleet.

4. My eternal apologies for Zinegata for putting the references in here too quickly. I wanted to get this out of the way before I headed back to California.

* * *

Author's questions: 

1. How did the dispositions of the order of battle and the fight go? I apologize for making any mistakes in terms of continuity and canon.

2. Does anyone have any ideas on how I could vary my battles so to attempt to make each one interesting?

As always, please read and review.


	5. Catching targets off guard

Chapter 5: Catching targets off guard:

**Zeon fleet, near Side 1, ****January 1, 12:02am:**

As the Zeon fleet glided towards space at battle speed, its commander, Rear Admiral Kicylia Zabi, brooded in long thought as she observed her forces closing in on the cluster of colonies designated Side 1. This would be her first time in battle and she was deeply worried about how she would perform. Beneath the hard face with icy eyes was a soul that had seen much horror and darkness within her family and within herself as well. So far she kept her cool but she knew that this would be different and she wondered her reaction to the sight of blood and death.

The fleet group heading directly towards Side 1 was somewhat smaller than the ones that tackled Side 2 and 4. Other elements were heading towards the moon, first to act as a blocking force and then to capture the lunar cities and their factories over there. Despite the smaller size, Kycilia had confidence in her men and the new technology they would use. During the buildup of the Principality's military, she had taken an immense interest in the research and development of the new weapons.

The ringing of an alarm brought her back into the present and she immediately turned to watch the developing battle in front of her and she spotted the explosions as the lead mobile suits annihilate the forward screens before returning to advance and kill more of their foes. Kycilia smiled at the ease at which the Zakus disposed of the pickets and warning stations while continuing to fly ahead towards the huge colony cylinders. Flying in right behind was the Zeon fleet with the _Jicco_ class missile boats and _Musai_ class cruisers in the lead, _Chivvays_ right behind and the two _Gwanzine_ class super battleships in the rear.

**Side 1 Garrison fleet: **

Inside Side 1 itself, the Federation forces reacted in a pitiful manner compared to that of Side 2 and 4. Though most of their crews remained on ship, their captains took way too much time to escape from the dock before the Zakus swarmed in upon them with 120mm machine guns and bazookas. Soon the black void of space came alive with explosions and energy fire.

Unlike their colleuges in Side 2 and 4, most of the Federation personnel belonged to that of those that opposed General Revil. They believed like the politicians back home that the colonies of Side 3 would not do something this insane and if they did then the much larger Federation fleet would wipe the floor with them. Even for a few moments, some crews and officers did not believe that they were under attack and it took several fellow crewmembers to drag the disbelievers out to the windows to watch the horror unfolding around them.

Among those was Rear Admiral Karl Benson, commander of the Side 1 garrison from the _Magellan_ class battleship EFSF _Royal Oak_. After partying with the other senior officers as well as government officials, he had retired early to his quarters to prepare for the next day's work but was rudely awake after two hours of sleep. When alerted to the situation, he sat disbelieving in his quarters for a few minutes before dressing up and heading to the bridge to find the full horror playing out in space.

Scores of humanoid-shaped objects screamed through space with superb maneuverability with some already penetrating into the colony cylinders and laying waste inside. There were a few Saberfish fighters and those that managed to launch died within a few minutes from rapid 120mm machine gun fire. Most of the ships did attempt to put up a defense even while tied up in port with energy fire flying wildly around in all directions and some blasts actually impacting on the colonies themselves.

Seething at the sight, Benson jumped into his chair and opened up a communications link to the rest of the garrison, "Signal all ships to sortie and close in with the enemy". The bridge crew turned to look at each other before returning to their duties and soon the ship rumbled forward despite receiving damage from several Zakus. Her guns soon started firing back at her assailants, more to clear a path. Several other ships soon joined in although Zakus killed three _Salamis_ class cruisers before they could clear out.

Inside several of the colony cylinders, the Zeon mobile suits unleashed horrific destruction. Some, piloted by the Zeon marines, fired rapidly in all directions, killing everything in sight whether they were military or civilian targets. The civil defense forces attempted to respond quickly but they proved useless against the savage firepower of the Zeon mobile suit.

Back outside, it proved to be just as bad for as each Federation warship departed from its moorings, swarms of Zakus sped towards it and launched stinging attacks upon the departing ship's hull while easily avoiding the ship's AA fire. Soon more Federation ships fell to the Zeon mobile suit although they too began to suffer losses from the increasingly stiff anti-aircraft fire.

**Zeon fleet: **

From her vantage point on the _Gwazine_, Kycilia smiled at the devastation and at the fact that the new weapons performed exceptionally well. She turned to one of the radar officials and asked, "Status report on the progress of the attack"?

The officer replied, "We've achieved complete surprise and our forces have gained control of the area despite the fierce if unorganized resistance", "In fact several ships have already tried to escape".

An explosion to the starboard side highlighted the truth of that statement and Kycilia whispered chillingly, "Order all forces to commence general destruction". She sat back as if watching an epic movie front row center. As one, the Zeon fleet broke formation and began to spread out over the battlefield with turrets blazing.

Side 1 soon transformed into a meat grinder chewing up hundreds if not thousands on all sides within seconds. Most of those were Earth Federation or colony civilians that Zeon was supposed to be "liberating" but Zeon forces also suffered casualties as well in the murderous close-quarter combat.

For the Zaku pilots, although many had been looking forward for tasting combat for the first time, they immediately changed their minds about it in the first few minutes and now set about grimly doing their jobs. They broke into groups of three and flew towards their respective targets.

Despite the immense damage they suffered, the Federation fighter squadrons still attempted to get some of their Saberfish airborne. Soon they did and despite the horrendous odds, they plunged headlong into the Zaku squadrons.

Among the Zaku pilots were three black Zakus covering each other as they dispatched their foes. They blindingly fast that several Federation ships believed that they were only facing one when in fact they were facing three Zakus.

In their cockpits, the pilots of the three black Zakus Gaia, Mash, and Ortega smiled at their deadly work and that the technique they were unleashing had worked very well. While firing a burst of his 120mm machine gun, Gaia turned to the other two and yelled out, "You guys having a fun time over there"?

Both pilots smiled at the comment and Ortega replied almost in a bored tone, "So many to choose from it feels like we're slaughtering pigs for dinner".

Mash added by saying, "Too bad we don't have any delicacies to go along with all of the "food" here". He then fired off a burst at an approaching _Salamis_ class cruiser and blew its bridge off, "All we need right now is one very fat one and the meal will be set".

Gaia laughed at the comparison to food before returning to the battle.

In another part of the battlefield, the Zaku pilots of the Zeon marines also dealt with their own targets as they fought their way inside. Among the pilots was a green haired woman named Cima Garahau. Although scared shitless at the sight of all this death, she managed to continue piloting her suit in the insane madness.

Her communications console started to beep and she winced before taking the call. It was her commanding officer, who was a sexist pig who ate too much red meat, "Take several Zakus and cover us as we take care of the colonies inside". She snorted before signaling five other Zakus flying alongside her and they headed towards a Federation cruiser group heading straight at them.

The commander of the Federation cruiser group looked startled that six humanoid fighters would come at him head on. Thinking that he had the upper hand, the commander yelled out, "Signal all batteries to blow that rabble out of the sky and prepare to use missiles". He held on as his ship's batteries opened up on the intruders, followed by her accompanying sisters.

The Zakus broke formation and each dove on a separate cruiser while avoiding the intense anti-aircraft fire with ease. With each cruiser forced to deal with its own assailant, they could not assist each other, which worked to the advantage of the Zakus. Cima herself flew down towards the deck at full throttle while energy fire exploded all around her. She activated her targeting scope and fired a burst along the _Salamis's_ hull, knocking weapons and inflicting grievous damage. Eventually she flew towards the bridge and snickered at the sight of the frightened bridge crew before slicing them in half with her heat axe. The female pilot flew her Zaku away as her "prey" went up and floated around one of the colony cylinders while searching for more targets.

On the _Gwanzine_, Kycilia smiled in satisfaction as she observed both forces blasting away at each other. She mused to herself, "I wish that they'd put up more resistance so that we can wipe them all out in one swipe". Several explosions shook the ship and she grabbed hold of her seat as the crew steadied the huge warship while her enormous guns fired against targets in the distance. After a moment, she turned to her XO and yelled out, "Bring up the gas and prepare to exterminate them".

Everyone on the bridge looked stunned and her XO nerved himself to speak their collective thoughts, "If we do it right now, it will expose us to more risks than necessary".

That earned him a withering glare from Kycilia as she said, "We need to free our MS teams from fighting inside those cylinders". She then snarled before stating, "Besides, the sight of us using the gas will persuade them that resistance is useless". Her voice then tightened further into an angry scowl before stating, "Get those teams moving", "Record this and then signal the ships to form up into blockades and kill anything that tries to break through our lines".

Throughout the ships in the fleet, several squads of MS-05B Zaku Is, painted in the brownish colors of the Zeon marines, emerged from their ships while dragging large buoy shaped objects behind them. The more advanced MS-06 Zaku IIs soon circled the 05s protectively as they flew towards the already devastated colony cylinders as if eager to add more numbers to the ghastly death toll in this Side alone, if the horrendous fighting hadn't already inflicted enough damage.

**Side 1 Federation fleet flagship Royal Oak, ****January 2, 10:23pm: **

Chaos swamped onboard the flagship as she struggled to fight back against her assailants while making her way to her collueges, a mix of shell and energy fire hammering her all the way. Her enormous turrets fired red beams of death, that when accurate, were devastating to those on the receiving end while her anti-aircraft weapons along with that of several other Magellans in the vicinity literally dumped all of their ammunition.

Although smoke and electrical fires filled the bridge, the command crew continued to coordinate the defense as the battle played out in front of them. So far, the fight had been going mostly Zeon's way and the use of their incredible new humanoid fighters had inflicted terrible losses among the Federation forces stationed in area.

From his seat, Rear-Admiral Karl Benson watched in horror as more of the ships under his command went down. As he saw another _Magellan's_ reactors go off, he swore and turned to his XO, "Can't we summon more fighter support from the colony militias". The XO shook his head and Benson turned back to the window before yelling out, "Concentrate your fire on their larger ships, if we can take them out, we can buy ourselves some time".

Though the officers reacted with silent shock, they attempted to comply with the admiral's order and soon, the _Royal Oak's_ forward guns switched from hammering at the forward elements of the Zeon fleet towards the middle sections. Soon three other _Magellans_ along with several _Salamis_ joined in the attack.

Back in the colonies themselves, those that survived the initial strikes attempted to hid in the remaining shelters or get to the evacuation ships but only a few got there and what evacuation pods that managed to launch were cut down in seconds by fire from both sides. In retrospect, they would be the lucky ones for they died quickly and mercilessly while an even worse fate waited for the many thousands that hid in their bunkers.

For right outside the colony cylinders, the MS-05 Zaku Is landed on the outer walls of the metal cylinders. While several of the MS-05 Zaku Is stood guard, the rest transported the canisters to the filtration systems of the cylinders. After inserting the cylinders, the Zakus turned the cylinders on and soon the meters dropped down to empty.

This did not escape the notice of the Federation forces including the _Royal Oak_ and as they realized the horror unleashed several ships, along with attendant Saberfish fighters, roared recklessly towards the targets and into the waiting guns of the Zakus and spaceships with nearly all blown away at point blank range.

As the command crew watched in horror at the use of the chemical weapons, Benson replied very harshly, "Arm all our nuclear weapons and set course straight for them". The other occupants turned in horror at their now somewhat deranged commander but he cut them off by stating, "If we're going down then we're taking these spacenoid bastards with us". He then turned to one of the radar officials and roared, "Any other groups managed to link up with us"?

The official immediately tried to clear up the immense static and soon replied back, "I can't get a clear count but several other groups have managed to escape and are linking up with us now". They turned to see several other heavily damaged _Magellans_ and _Salamis_ ships joining up and although several other officers commented of the dubious usefulness of the heavily damaged ships. Benson ignored that for all he could think about was killing as many of his opponents as fast as possible. As soon as the remnants formed up into formation, they started to bore in on the main Zeon fleet group in the area.

**Zeon fleet: **

On the _Gwanzine_, alarms rang out throughout the bridge as the mobile suits reported to the flagship of the Federation fleet's intentions. Kycilia snarled at the impudence of her opponents and roared out, "Meet them head on and kill them all". The huge warship and her escorts immediately maneuvered into a position where they could bring **all** of their weapons to bear on the oncoming Federation warships while Zakus formed up in front of them with guns and bazookas ready.

Soon both fleets collided with each other in an orgy of destruction with ships and fighters firing at each other at point blank range with beam weapons, missiles and machine gun fire in all directions. It soon resembled into a macabre version of a battle in a sci-fi movie made in the late twentieth century.

Although the _Gwanzine_ shuddered under the blows, she was a super-battleship in the tradition of the infamous World War II Japanese super battleships _Yamato_ and _Musashi_ and withstood the pounding while her enormous topside guns delivered withering fire on the blue-gray warships.

The _Musais_ and the _Chivvays_ fared rather worse with their think armor easily ripped apart by the savage energy fire thrown up by their foes. Many immediately broke formation and attempted to find cover within the debris fields forming from the wreckage of battle. Meanwhile the Zakus attacked the periphery of the formation with bazooka fire since the suddenly crossfire proved to be too rich to venture through for anyone's blood. In retrospect, that would have their lives from the horror one insane Federation fleet commander was about to unleash.

**EFSF Royal Oak: **

The huge _Magellan_ class battleship continued to speed in towards the direction of the Zeon fleet while being severely battered. Soon most of her heavy guns had been silenced fires raged on all decks, which the repair crews barely managed to hold back. However soon they had closed the distance enough to unleash their deadly cargo and everyone turned to the commander as he issued the words in a deathly silence, "Launch missiles then prepare to fire main cannons on targets".

Despite the flames, the _Royal Oak_ opened her torpedo bays and several missiles exploded from their launchers towards a group of green _Musais_ and red _Chivvays_ blocking their way while hovering over several somewhat intact colonies.

For a few seconds, all was silent as the Zeon ships blasted away but once they spotted the nuclear missiles, they attempted to change direction but it was too late as the missiles detonated, unleashing their horrific power.

**Kycilia Zabi's flagship: **

The _Gwanzine_ herself was caught in the shockwave and Kycilia grabbed onto her seat hard as the ship shook from the shockwave. She mentally cursed herself for not using her own nukes quickly and she would soon have more to curse about as the two fleets passed right by each other. For as she passed by a _Magellan_ class battleship, it turned its guns and fired a mix of solid-shot and beam energy fire at the Zeon flagship at point blank range, actually damaging it pretty badly. The bridge crew was thrown around in its seat and Kycilia knocked out of her chair and onto the floor.

For the Zaku pilots, the horror of what they had just witnessed with the use of the nuclear weapons by the "evil" Earth Federation made some of them snap, which was further enhanced by some of the more thoughtful ones seeing the enormous number of dead people within the colony cylinders, frozen blood flowing out of the noses and ears of the corpses. Lead by a grief-stricken Cima Garahau, a good portion of Zakus immediately flew after the fleeing Federation forces with weapons blazing. The others halted for a moment to take stock of the situation before an icy worded statement from the damaged flagship sent them on their way with the three black Zakus in the lead and heading for the _Royal Oak_.

Back on the _Gwanzine_, firefighting teams and medical personal had already arrived on the bridge to help fight the fires. So busy and chaotic that no one noticed that a solid-shot shell had impacted right on the bridge itself but had apparently exploded. Seeing this, the XO immediately yelled out, "All personnel evacuate the bridge now".

It came just in time for just as Kycilia had left the bridge, the battleship shell exploded, sending out shrapnel in all directions and knocking down those fortunate to take cover and cutting down those that were unfortunate, including an officer that had shielded the Rear-Admiral from the blast as she departed the bridge.

Once the bridge doors closed and the hallways pressurized, Kycilia had only a moment to take in her surroundings before a horrific stench slammed into the nose with the force of an anvil. She looked around for the source before her eyes widened in horror at the sight of the corpse of the officer that had shielded her from the blast, his skin deadly pale with burns all over and enormous cuts in the back of his body. Kycilia scampered away from the corpse as if a frightened child while coughing her lungs out to exhale the stench of dried blood. She nearly fainted and it was only the sound of her XO and several crewmembers which forced the admiral and Zabi family member to pull herself together. She turned to her harried XO and said quickly, "Transfer command to another vessel, and see to the wounded", "I'll be in my quarters". The men saluted and hurried off as a dazed Kycilia made her way to the sanctuary of her private quarters where she could let the strain of battle finally depart her bruised and battered body.

**Retreating Side 1 garrison units: **

To the exhausted Federation soldiers departing Side 1, the sight of the devastated Zeon warships and melted Zakus undoubtedly lifted their spirits but they soon dropped as the rear ships came under attack from an angry horde of Zeon Zakus. Several _Salamis_ and a _Magellan_ fell to the sudden "air strike" before the rest responded but the Zakus pressed home their attacks.

Cima Garahau, now driven nearly insane by the horrors that she had just witnessed, flew her Zaku at maximum burn while she fired her 120mm machine gun wildly in all directions, killing both friend and foe alike. When she emptied the last of her machine gun ammunition, the green-haired woman switched to her 280mm bazooka, which she emptied in 30 seconds of rapid and uncoordinated fire.

As for the three black Zakus, they had one particular target in mind, the flagship of the group. Despite receiving the worst of the enemy anti-aircraft fire, they maintained their formation as they closed in on the _Royal Oak_.

The heavily damaged Federation battleship still attempted to fight back but by now, her engines were nearly destroyed, most of her weapons knocked out and her hull breached in multiple places. However, she stood no chance as the three Zakus suddenly broke formation and let loose everything they had on her. Soon, the combined battering resulted in her destruction as her reactors and magazines cooked off from well placed shots from the Black-Tri Stars. They accelerated away to find more targets as the ship exploded, claming several escape pods from other destroyed warships.

The stinging attacks continued for a few more minutes before the flagship broadcasted the recall order and all Zakus returned back to mop-up. The Federation stragglers, glad that the worst was over for now, made their tortuous way to the main Federation base of Luna II with many heavily damaged ships and some would succumb to their wounds on the long endless journey.

**Gihren's Quarters, Zum City, ****January 3, UC 0079: **

Inside his home, Gihren Zabi sat in a large red chair in his study with the fireplace burning alit. The momentous events of the previous few weeks prevented him from catching any sleep although that did not bother him for he had trained his mind and body to work for days on end and still resemble his normal self. He had much to brood about and besides, he knew that the work of a man like himself did not end with the coming of the night when most people retired for sleep. Therefore as a rule, the moment any important developments arrived, the aides were to be alert either him or Cecilia immediately before alerting Sovereign Degwin.

Before the door even opened, he immediately knew who was in the hallway, "You should get some sleep my dear".

The person in question replied sincerely, "I felt lonely without you there so I decided to join you down here". Cecilia walked up to him and Gihren turned around to see the light of the fire illuminating her beautiful form. She then added, "You already know that you're siblings will do well in leading your forces to victory and remain unharmed".

Gihren nodded but then said, "I guess it is because I'm just too excited that all the work that my family has done over these many years has finally come to fruition". He then said, "I also wish that I could also be on the front lines to witness this history we're creating first hand". He then scooted over to allow Cecilia to have a seat on his lap as they continued to enjoy the peaceful silence.

It was broken a few minutes later when a knock at the attracted their attention. Leaving Cecilia to rest alone for a few minutes, he made his way to the door and opened it to see one of the officials from the Joint Operations Center. The officer saluted before explaining why he was here and then left while Gihren returned to the library where Cecilia was waiting, "Looks like you were right for me not to worry about the progress". His face then became serious, "Since we're about to move to a more important stage, I have to be at the Operations Center". He was about to say something more when Cecilia nodded and headed upstairs to gather their things. While she did that, Gihren opened up a view screen, which showed Earth floating in the infinite blackness of space, its mixture of blue and green a target beacon in the Supreme Commander's eyes. He then whispered icily perhaps to the spineless Federation politicians on Earth, "If you think that you've seen the worst then you're all dead wrong". That thought made him laugh a small cold one as he imagined the destruction he and the forces under his command would unleash on the "poisoned" birthplace of mankind.

* * *

Next chapter: Chapter 6: Preparing an enormous bomb: plans are underway to unleash an operation codenamed "British" while the Earth Federation comes to grips with the scale of the devastation of Total War.

* * *

Author's notes:

In my attempted to make the battles in each chapter have variety, I attempted to do a Pearl Harbor style attack.

The _Royal Oak_ was a former World War II British battleship that was sunk by a German submarine that had penetrated into the main British naval base of Scapa Flow and escaped without harm.

The scene with Kycilia throwing up at the sight of the corpse was my attempted to insert in a situation where Kycilia would soon use her trademark black mask (as indicated in the novel version of Mobile Suit Gundam).

The scene of Cima Garahau nearly going insane from the carnage was taken from the Play-station 2 game MSG: Encounters in Space.

* * *

Author's question for all of those who came before me: How well am I doing in portraying the early days of the One Year War thus far? Also, was this chapter particularly bloody in comparison to my other ones (blame it one some of the works and conversation I had with other fellow fanfic authors)

As always, please read and review. I worked very hard on this particular fanfic in order to make it a very good one.


	6. Prepertions for the drop:

Chapter 6: Prepertions for the drop:

**Ruins of Side 2, January 4th, UC 0079:**

Despite the enormous wreckage littering the area, Zeon _Papua_ supply vessels already started to pour into the area to resupply the exhausted Zeon forces, provide replacements and most importantly transport the engines needed to move a colony out of its orbit. Zakus flew out on the outward edges of the fleet to provide protection as the supply ships commenced their work.

When the supply crews arrived in the area, the scale of the destruction stunned them. After observing that that many of the troops in the area resembled walking corpses, several volunteered to assist in the repairs, even to the point of begging the repair crews to rest while they took over their shifts.

In his quarters on the flagship which had recently arrived in the area, Dozle Zabi looked over the reports of the battles in the other Sides, his face frowning at their contents. Although he was bloodthirsty like his siblings, the casualty reports surprised him to say the least. He looked up to the sub-unit commanders and spotted several frowning themselves although they attempted to hide it from the bellicose commander. He put his notes down and said to them in a hard tone, "So any idea when we can initiate phase two of the operation". His eyes signaled them to speak candidly about their chances.

One of his officers replied, "It will take some time but with the reinforcements pouring from the other sides as well as home, we can begin the operation within 12-19 hours.

Another officer replied, "However, we should commence periphery operations to give the replacements some sense of experience so to give them a chance". He did not need to back up the idea for after witnessing battle for the first time, everyone including Dozle had the same thought themselves: They would need nearly every ship and mobile suit they could get their hands on to protect the chosen colony as it flew towards Earth.

Dozle nodded and stood up from his seat before saying, "Over everyone to get a mandatory rest of 8-10 hours and if they complain then toss them into the brig", "If any of the replacements or the supply crew voluntary offers assistance then the commanders are to grant their request". He then paused for a moment before finishing, "The next few days will be hard on us so get rest now and then work hard to ensure success". The commanders saluted him before they departed his quarters.

Now alone, Dozle sat down at his desk and took a deep breath before his eyes focused on a photo that lay on his desk. It was that of a beautiful slim blond haired woman with a red-haired female child in her arms. Almost unconsciously he traced his right hand on the outline of the photo and remembered the reaction of the woman when he told her that he would depart tomorrow with the rest of the fleet and winced at her sad reaction. Shaking himself back into the present, he whispered into the photograph, "I miss you both and I promise that I will finish this soon so you won't have to suffer what so many have suffered these past few days". He put the photo back and retired for the night.

On the hanger deck of the flagship, both Char Aznable and Garma Zabi observed the mobile suit technicians overhauling their respective suits. After returning from their first mission, both pilots said little of their experiences to each other as they came to terms with the horror they partially had a hand in unleashing. Sometimes when they talked with each other, their arms started to shake a little as they relived the deadly moments. Even Dozle noticed the shaking from Garma and had arranged for Garma to rest and Garma in turn managed to pull string so that Char could head back and rest.

Char broke the silence by stating, "Do you still want to go out on a night on the town"?

Garma shook his head and replied, "I'll settle for a quiet drink". He paused before continuing, "I will attempt to celebrate when I attend the family gatherings but other than that, I guess I just want a rest period". He then admitted, "Although I wouldn't mind returning to the field, I would prefer for it to be later".

Char nodded in agreement as he remembered the horror he witnessed out in space, "Even though we feel we may be ready for such horrors, after witnessing them for the first time requires us to step back for a moment and consider our choices". He then admitted out loud, "I was scared shitless as if I was piloting a Zaku for the first time".

The honesty of the blond man surprised Garma and he replied, "And I thought I was the one who felt the shell shock". He then paused, "Well we did survive a first run with good experience that we can pass down to the others at the academy to ensure that they won't get caught unprepared as we did".

Char laughed at that statement before saying, "If we had drinks right now then I would toast to that". They laughed before Char replied, "We should get our gear packed before heading back home". The two friends shook hands before returning to their separate quarters.

**Luna II:**

Shaped somewhat like an egg, the huge Federation asteroid base of Luna II hovered majestically around the Earth. Usually numerous ships hovered around the base but this time numerous ships of all types swarmed like ants over the base while overwhelmed soldiers attempted to process their cargo through as fast as they could. Unfortunately the enormous number of ships overwhelmed the capabilities of the garrison and soon the hallways lined with the wounded and the dead while the survivors walked around with lifeless looks in their eyes. Both children and adults cried bitter tears as they saw their loved ones slip into death.

As soon as General Revil arrived at the base, his mouth dropped at the full scale of the horror that had been unleashed only a few days ago. His fleet group had spotted the survivors from Side 4 and 1 heading straight for Luna II. After several minutes of attempted to gain information from shell-shocked survivors, Revil decided to shepherd the survivors back and hopefully find out if anyone else escaped.

While walking along the hallways, Revil's mind worked overtime as he received the latest information. Right now all they could do right now was to gather their scattered units before even before considering launching an all out counter-offensive. He frantically searched for any of his colleagues and when he arrived at one of the large conference room, several of them were already there, including Vice-Admiral Tianem, and Captain Wakkein. He immediately made his way over to them and they immediately exchanged handshakes before the two other commanders began to fill him in on their end.

Tianem started first, "My fleet group was patrolling near the edges of the moon when we spotted the survivors heading in from Side 1 and 4 followed by several pursuers". He then paused before continuing on, "We managed to fight them off but despite their numbers, they inflicted heavy damage on us, killing one of my _Magellans_ and two of my _Salamis_ before we drove them off", "After that, we started to find more survivors". The admiral paused before pointing outside into the hallways grimly, "Well as you can see the results speak for themselves".

Revil just nodded before they turned to Wakkein, his own face in a grim mood, "After the attack began, I took the _Hal_ out along with several other ships to Side 2 and we nearly got ambushed green-shaped humanoid fighters while searching for survivors". He then paused before stating, "Despite our best efforts, we also lost several ships ourselves". The Commandant finished by saying, "After that, we spotted scores of civilian warships trying to make their way here".

The general snarled as he heard the reports since they seemed to generally confirm the bad situation going on, leaving him with very few options. He replied to his colleagues, "Thank you gentlemen for bringing this to my attention", "However I wonder how this will play in the eyes of the others at Jaburo"? A signal from the main Federation headquarters soon answered that question. Putting their thoughts aside, the commanders sat down as the image of several grey and brown haired men flashed across the screen, all of them in their early fifties to late seventies.

The head man in the image, the Federation President, spoke first, "First I would like to thank you all for gathering here despite the circumstances". His face then turned icy hard as he said, "Now what is the situation".

Revil took a deep breath before stating, "Just after midnight of the new year, the colonies of Side 1, 2, and 4 were attacked by forces from the Side 3 area", "and they achieved complete surprise and virtually annihilated the garrison units there as well as most of the civilians".

One of the other politicians replied, "The civilians mean little at the moment in comparison to the losses of the garrison units". He then said, "How did they manage to get past our intelligence agents"?

Revil turned to him and replied harshly, "Well the intelligence agents know to me had been warning you all of a situation like this for the past few weeks". Ignoring the glare from screen, he continued by stating, "Every time we attempt to send the latest report up the chain, it is sent back with the message "Too provocative", "In fact several of my officers who forwarded the reports were arrested on trump-up charges".

The president replied, "We felt that if we undertook the recommendations on the report that Zeon would do the same and used the increasing hostilities as justification for launching a war on us". He then added, "Also we thought that if by stationing large portions of ships in the colonies would deter the Principality of Zeon from trying something".

Behind Revil, one of his officers, a Russian, whispered, "All the good that did was to provide them with fat juicy targets". He shut his mouth immediately when he spotted Revil looking at him for a moment before returning to the screen where the Minster of Defense spoke out in a loud harsh tone, "Furthermore, we also received the reports that they managed to overrun us even though our technology is better and we outnumber them".

Revil took a deep breath before stating, "Somehow they managed to develop countermeasures for out own weapons and new technologies of their own".

The defense minister was about to say something when one of his aides handed him several photos and papers with the name Mobile Suit on them. As he read through them, Revil continued, "Our troops spotted fighter craft similar to the ones noted in the photos", "They're more maneuverable than our Saberfish fighters and can carry a wide variety of weapons for different tasks".

With each word that came out the mouth, the Defense Minister gritted his teeth in anger. The other politicians also voiced equally harsh condemnation of the Federation command staff. It soon turned into a full blown argument to the point that several of his associates wondered if Revil had finally earned an arrest warrant from the Federation Intelligence Services. He roared back at the General, "These reports are full of bulls". Before Revil could reply he said, "Your troops panicked in the face of a numerically inferior enemy and your commanders implemented bad decisions to meet them". He then turned back to the president who meditated in thought while the exchange continued.

Once it settled down, he spoke back to the screen, "Nevertheless we find your comments disturbing and ask you to refrain from saying things like this". Revil and those that sided with him were stunned for a moment before the general sat back down in his seat and the president continued his speech, "Remove those that are panic mongers and place in those that will not hesitate to defeat our enemies and ensure that Earth will not be threatened". He then shut them off, leaving the conference room on Luna II deathly quiet.

Revil turned back to the other officers and said quietly, "Well does anyone here have any ideas on how to fulfill the wishes of those at Jaburo". Not surprisingly, his more serious minded officials did not speak while the officers who had the streak of superiority started to comment.

Some of the commanders, lead by an Admiral Juichi Nishimura advocated launching an all out strike on the Principality. They argued that the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Earth Federation would provide some measure of success against the Zeon fleet and to threaten the Principality directly would persuade its leaders to call off this mad war and if not, they would be more than happy to kill a large number of spacenoids as revenge for being brutally taken by surprise.

Nishimura stood up and looked at Revil, "Are you willing to allow the sacrifices of so many go to waste". He then turned to the others and said to the others, "So far all we have been doing is reacting and reacting rather badly to the actions of these bastards". He then paused before finishing, "We have to force those Zeon bastards that we'll fight for every inch and if they want to open the gates of hell then they must also enter through it as well". He then sat back down in his seat as everyone awaited the general's response.

Revil took a deep breath before stating, "I understand all of you have undergone a horrific trial by fire during the past several days and right now we're all in no condition to make any decisive decisions". Before Nishimura and the others could interrupt, Revil replied, "I want you all to get as much rest as possible and your troops to train to adapt to these new realities". He then turned to Wakkein and said, "Launch patrols and figure out what the Zeon are going to do next". Despite his surprise at Revil's earlier words, Wakkein saluted in a professional manner. With that the conference ended and room emptied itself.

Once Nishimura returned to his quarters, he immediately opened a link to Jaburo where he spoke with the politicians and several other admirals who were based there. He immediately winced as he spotted the angry look on one of the admirals as he berated Nishimura and complained about Revil's behavior. When it was his turn to speak, the admiral immediately apologized, "Some of the younger commanders also agreed with my statements and were eager to hit back but that Revil is holding them back with his foolhardy words of caution".

One of the politicians in the room nodded and said, "He has caused trouble for us in the past and if he continues to create even more trouble then it could be disastrous for us". He then paused before stating, "If only the Zeon forces had done a much better job of getting rid of Revil's supporters then we could rest easier". That brought a laugh from the others in the room which lasted for a moment before he continued, "Still Revil being in command of this crisis is very troubling".

Nishimura nodded at the statement before he signed off, leaving those in Jaburo to consider about dealing with this crisis in a way that would achieve their goals. They sat looking at each other for a moment before the Earth Federation President said to his audience, "So how do we break the news of the crisis to the people here"?

**Zeon fleet in Side 2 area: **

It took the better part of twelve hours for the Zeon engineers to attach their enormous engines to the wrecked Island Iffish colony and once they attached the last engine to its designated point, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Around them, the Zeon fleet hurriedly reassembled into a protective formation while the supply vessels finished the last minute transportation between themselves and the warships.

In one of the hangers of the _Gwanzine_, a _Komusai_ class shuttle awaited two more passengers before it would fly back to its Papua class supply ship. Those two passengers were heading there while Admiral Dozle Zabi accompanied them to their shuttle while talking with one of the two, "To be honest I'm somewhat glad that you're heading back home". His harsh face displayed brotherly concern towards his little brother Garma as he spoke his thoughts, "Though I can't see why you would want to bring one of my top pilots back with you".

Garma smiled before stating, "Out of all the pilots here, Char performed superbly and you already have more than enough ace pilots to spare for this operation and the academy could use ace pilots to help give the new trainees a better chance to survive". His expression turned solemn as he remembered the savagery of the fighting and counted his blessings for his survival.

Char then added, "Though I wish that I could stay here and participate, your younger brother had a very good point". He then added, "Sir would you rather have live pilots than dead heroes under your command".

The blond haired man had hit a very important point with Dozle since he like everyone knew about an important element of his command style, which was his desire to protect his soldiers and give them every chance. If Char and the other ace pilots heading back to Zeon could pass their advice onto the new trainees then Dozle heartedly welcomed the assistance". The Zeon admiral and Zabi family member laughed heartedly and replied back, "Well said Mr. Aznable and I have to agree with my brother on what he said about you". Char smiled at the compliment while Dozle paused for a moment before saying to Garma, "Say hello to your father and your brother Gihren for me". Garma nodded and the two Zabi siblings exchanged a hug of goodbye before he boarded the shuttle along with Char and they departed from the huge red Zeon battleship. After that, the admiral headed back to the bridge which was a hive of activity.

Once Dozle arrived back in his seat, he immediately opened a link to one of the recently arrived _Chivvays_ and its commander for he would be the flagships of the attack, "You understand the mission at hand do you General Dannaigan".

On the other end of the line, the Lieutenant General nodded and replied, "I received a personal briefing from the Commandant himself and have been discussing with the other commanders involved in the operation". He paused for a moment before stating with confidence, "With the ships at our disposal and with the element of surprise, we can deliver our cargo to Earth quite safely", "And even if they did attempt to oppose us, we will easily smash them aside".

Dozle nodded but felt somewhat annoyed by the man's overconfidence though he along with many others suffered that same problem, only differentiated by degrees. He nodded before saying, "Both Kycilia and I will be standing by with ships to protect the Principality from retaliation and provide support for you if you need it". Kannaigan nodded in acknowledgement before Dozle replied, "I wish you success in this mission". Both saluted before Kannaigan signed off. Sitting back in his seat, Dozle mused for a moment before turning to one of his communications officers, "Signal all ships not assigned to the drop operation to set course back towards home and mobile suit units to prepare defensive positions within the ruins". The admiral felt his ship rumble as it turned around and headed back to base with most of the supply vessels and a few warships.

After looking at the departure for a few moments, Dannigan turned back to his bridge crew and asked, "When we'll be able to start moving the colony cylinders forward"? One of the aides replied that they could do it in fifteen minutes and the general smiled before stating, "Once the operation gets underway, I want several squads of mobile suits to patrol out along the perimeter and the rest to stand at plus five", "All ships are to stand at condition two with weapons ready to shoot and scanners at full power". Everyone knew why for it would be along journey with plenty of chances for the Earth Federation Forces to launch flanking strikes on them". He finished by stating, "Prepare to move out the moment the colony is ready for the journey". His men saluted and the general sat down while the clocked ticked away".

**Luna II, January 5th, UC 0079, sometime after midnight. **

The enormous asteroid had powerful scanners and telescopes in place to observe the Earth Solar System. Augmented by search units from the asteroid base and the remaining fleet units in Side 6, they nervously scanned for any sign of future Zeon activity. Once they did, the scout units passed the information up the chain to the lead commanders.

Revil slept in his bed when an officer knocked quickly at his door. He immediately got up and impatiently opened the door to find a commotion played out in front of him. He immediately asked the aide "Is there any movement of the Zeon fleet"?

The officer replied, "We spotted the Zeon fleet on a course towards Earth and they also have one of the colony cylinders from Side 2 accompanying them". He paused before stating, "The fleet has formed up in a circular formation around the colony and are escorting it forward towards Earth".

Revil worked on the consequences of the news for a few moments before asking, "Has Jaburo been notified"? The officer nodded before Revil continued, "Summon all commanders and order all ships to prepare to move". The officer headed back into the hallway while Revil immediately put on his uniform before heading to the conference room.

He arrived to see the others there and the communications link with Jaburo established. Already arguments flared up between the politicians and generals in Jaburo and the generals and admirals in Luna II. The politicians were clearly starting to become more agitated as they received the news of the Zeon fleet and the implications.

As part of the construction of the base, it contained enormous titanium steel doors strong enough to withstand a general nuclear blast. If one knew where to hit and penetrate into the interior of the base, then it would have been a different story but in this case, the Zeon didn't. So the Zeons did the next best thing: Taking an enormous five mile-wide steel cylinder and use it as an enormous nuclear missile.

The intelligence officers at the briefing continued to update the high command as soon as more arrived, "From what we could find, they plan to use the moon as a staging point and then launch the Side 2 colony from there while outflanking our main forces on Luna II".

Clearly frightened, the Earth Federation President asked, "Do you know where this colony will crash at". One of the intelligence officers took a deep breath before saying, "Trajectory indicates that the colony will crash on Earth above Jaburo", "More than likely, it will result in the complete destruction of the base and the surrounding area".

The room became deathly silent before the Defense Minister started to yell out, "You must use everything in your disposal to prevent the colony from hitting Earth", "If it does then our ability to resist them is virtually destroyed".

One of Jaburo commanders immediately yelled out with fear in his voice, "How many fleets do we have within the vicinity.

Revil grimaced before stating, "We have enough ships assembled to form a large fleet but we also need to prepare for large scale attacks in other areas". Before he could speak more, the Earth Federation Defense Minister roared out, "We'll make the decisions here and we order you to commit every ship you have in your disposal to stop this colony attack".

It took Tianem much to restrain his tempter as he stood up from his chair and said to them, "Don't worry about your asses on the line, it will be us doing the dirty work for you". Before Revil or the Jaburo commanders could reprimand him, he said out in a clear voice, "The 4th fleet will use **all** of its resources to stop this Zeon attack".

That brought a smile on the faces of those at Jaburo and they all smiled at the Federation admiral's determination with the president saying, "All of Earth is with you in this moment". He then turned to Revil and asked him smugly, "Do you have any objections to the vice-admiral's action"?

Revil grimly shook his head and replied, "I fully support this decision and will see to it that it succeeds". He then turned to the others in the room, "And I expect you all to do the same thing". Everyone nodded and Revil allowed them to leave while he talked with Tianem alone.

The commander of the _Titan_ braced himself for a reprimand from his superior officer but Revil replied back, "I won't reprimand you for your actions" "Instead I want to know how man ships you'll need to pull this off".

The dark-haired admiral replied grimly, "I'm going to need all the help I can get to pull this off".

Revil nodded before saying, "I'll lend you some of the warships from my taskforce to help you succeed". Before Tianem could argue, "You're going to need all the help you can get and the only thing we have thus far on our side is our numerical strength", "If it can increase the chance of success then I'd take it".

Tianem realized that the general stated many irrefutable points and just nodded in thanks before heading out. Before leaving, he heard Revil say to him the words all commanders said to their troops before sending them out to their death, "Good luck and good hunting". Tianem saluted before heading off towards the _Titan_ leaving Revil alone in the darkness of the room.

Soon a beehive of activity engulfed the base as crews struggled to reach their ships before they departed for Earth. Already scores of fighters circled the area as they waited for their mother-ships to depart from the docks. They soon started to launch back into the darkness of space by the score and when the _Titan_ herself departed from her moorings, the numerous Earth Federation ships formed up with Saberfish fighters tethered to the hulls of the man _Magellan_ and _Salamis_ class warships. From the bridge of the _Titan_, the flagship of the fleet, the order went out through all channels, "Set course for Earth at maximum burn".

**Zeon fleet closing on Earth:**

Ever since the Zeon fleet began its transit, its crews were on constant alert for any sign of resistance. Mobile suit squadrons flew combat air patrols while the crews on the ships waited at their posts for any sign of enemy resistance. The constant strain of combat alert combined with the boredom started to take a toll on them though most maintained their discipline. Fortunately though, the boredom would soon end as they closed in on Earth as the ships on the outer fringe of the fleet spotted EFF warships approaching them at maximum speed.

On the bridge of his _Chivvay_ class cruiser, Dannigan read the reports from his scout units for a moment before smiling with glee, "I was wondering when they would show up". He then opened a communications link to the rest of his ships, "All ships to battle stations, launch mobile suits, started dispersing Minovsky particles and prepare for enemy attack". His ship erupted into action as her crew rushed into action and the lights on the bridge and changed into the red color.

Throughout the entire fleet, the hanger doors of the Zeon warships opened up and scores of Zakus, many of them painted in the standard green colors, poured out by the score. As soon as they emerged out into space, they formed up into squadrons while their red mono-eyes scanned the space in front of them.

**4th Federation Fleet: **

Some distance off to the port side, the Earth Federation forces closed in on the Zeon fleet and the huge colony cylinder surrounded by the Zeon ships. It would not be long before the two forces came into contact with each other and **_many_** more on both sides would die

**Author's Notes: **

Sorry for ending the chapter right at when the battle was about to start but I wanted to leave that till next time.

I created Nishimura to be one of the leaders of a faction of Earth Federation officers who really had the streak of racial hatred towards those living in space. This would have eventually included those that would in the future end up in the infamous Titans.

I'm surprised I wrote so much for a non-battle chapter when attempting to illustrate the lead up into the dropping of the colony onto Earth.

You will see references to both the MSG anime and the MSG novel.

**As always, please read and review.**


	7. Path to Earth

Chapter 7: Path to Earth

**Space, Between Side 2 and Earth ****January 4th, UC 0079**

As the large colony floated ever closer to Earth, the Zeon fleet formed a 360-degree formation around it. _Komusais_ and other Zeon shuttle craft flew between the ships and the large colony, brining supplies to the engineers working on the colony's enormous engines while small squads of Zakus flew combat air patrols around the force with the rest standing by to launch once they ran into the Earth Federation Forces.

On the bridge of his _Chivvay_ class cruiser, Lieutenant General Dannigan sat in his command chair while the bridge crew readied the ship for imminent combat. Some of the lookouts were busy scanning the area in front of them when the inevitable signal came in from one of the Zaku patrols, "Have spotted enemy fleet approaching from port side, preparing to engage".

Dannigan took a deep breath before saying, "Signal the other squadrons to engage and order all ships to action station". He then activated a small button that linked him with the engineers on the colony, "What is the status of the engines"?

The voice on the other end of the line replied, "We still need some more time to get them ready".

Dannigan cursed before saying, "We're going to have some company so tell your engineers to speed it up as fast as you can". He then turned back to the bridge crew, "Signal all ships to engage once they enter the range then start scatter Minovsky particles". He then sat into his chair as the lights changed color into blood red and alarms started ringing throughout the fleet.

In the hanger decks of the ships, pilots rushed to their awaiting Zaku mobile suits and conventional fighters while the deck crews loaded the fighter craft with as much ammunition as possible. Once readied, each individual Zaku took up position before the ship's catapult flung it out to space while the Gattle conventional fighter bombers launched from the other hanger decks aboard the larger ships.

For the Zaku squadrons already in the sky, once they spotted the fleet, the Zeon MS squadrons headed towards the Federation forces at full speed despite their foes outnumbering them.

**EFSF _Titan_**

On the huge _Magellan_ class battleship, the bridge erupted into a beehive of activity when they spotted the Zeon fleet protecting the colony. While the crew hurried to relay Admiral Tianem's orders, he watched grimly as the ranges closed and several flashes of light heading straight for them. After several minutes, he yelled out his orders, "Order all ships to engage and fighters to take point", "Tell them to clear the way and for all ships to keep that colony in their sights while they engage the Zeon warships". Just like on the Zeon ships, the colors on the bridge of the _Titan_ changed to red to signal action stations.

Throughout the fleet, crews and officers ran to their stations as the fleet changed formation to suit their chances of survival. The Federation Saberfish fighters and scout vessels took the lead with the _Salamis_ surrounding the flanks and the enormous _Magellans_ in the center. Despite reading reports that such formations proved useless thus far in combat, Tianem adopted it in the hope that it would help him and everyone else survive against the Zeon fleet.

Before the admiral could say anymore, one of the officers turned to him in alarm, "Sir, the Zeon fleet has started jamming us and our orders barely seem to be getting through". Suddenly several officers at the radar stations started screaming out, "Sir, they've also jammed our radar".

Tianem cursed out loud before yelling, "All forces engage enemy forces at your own discretion".

**Outer space between the two sides: **

The leading elements of both fleets did not need to hear the orders from their respective commanding officers for they were heading straight at each other the moment they spotted each other. Soon, it lit up with numerous explosions as the lead Zaku squadrons slammed into the lead elements of the Federation fleet.

Within seconds, the small number of Zakus gained the upper hand despite the EFF badly outnumbering them. The sheer numbers of targets allowed them to blaze away with their 120mm machine gun rifles or use their 280 mm bazookas to kill several targets at once.

The Federation Fleet attempted to fight back but with their scanners jammed, they lost coordination with each other and soon order began breaking down with units forced to fight individually or in small groups. As for the fighters, while a good number attempted to defend their ships, the rest engaged in offensive dogfights with the green humanoid machines, often at the cost of their own lives. Already, the Zakus had managed to kill five _Salamis _and several other support vessels and with several squadrons of Saberfish fighters. Soon though, the immense volume of firepower forced the Zakus to scatter but only for a short while as their comrades soon joined up and the Zeon fleet added its own firepower into the defense.

As the battle started to inch closer to the colony, the Zeon fleet began redeploying in order to provide better protection to the colony while suspending the supply runs.

Among the Zakus engaging the Federation fleet was a pilot by the name of Roy Greenwood. Already having flown in the earlier missions, the pilot had already gained some experience but was still somewhat green like most of the other pilots.

Followed by several other Zakus, Greenwood activated his vernier engines and plunged into a group of Saberfish fighters, while firing his 120mm machine gun. His colleagues added their fire into his and soon they devastated the Saberfish squadrons directly in front of them. While three of the Zakus covered him from the Saberfish squadrons, Greenwood and the rest dove on the Federation ships in front of them.

The targeted Federation ships opened up with all of their firepower but to no avail as the Zakus easily avoided it with some switching to bazookas. Once in range, the Zakus started to lay waste to their victims. The _Salamis_ cruisers suffered more as they received the attention of the bazooka shots while their smaller AA complement prevented them from taking perhaps any of their assailants with them into the void.

The two _Magellans_ within this particular group faired somewhat better as their increased AA compliment gave them somewhat better protection against the Zakus but the Zeon pilots pushed their machines to their limits as they dove into the fray. When they closed the range, Greenwood and his fellow pilots peppered the two large battleships with their 120mm machine guns. Soon both battleships were burning from stem to stern and when the Zakus arrived at the engine sections of the ships, they let loose with all they had and soon their targets were nothing more than space debris. After clearing out, Greenwood and his colleagues searched for more targets.

In another part of the battle zone, Shin Matsunaga flew his white Zaku into the fray with his bazooka drawn. Exploiting the speed of his suit, Matsunaga flew towards a group of Salamis cruisers while avoiding the intense fire his potential victims threw up. Smirking at the sight despite the explosions all around him, Matsunaga flew right up to the bridge of one of the Salamis and fired his bazooka at its bridge. After flying away from the destroyed target, the white Zaku turned around and headed for another nearby Salamis along with several other Zakus.

The targeted vessels attempted to drive off their assailants but the Zeon mobile suits proved too much and within seconds several more Federation ships fell under the fire of the new weapons. As the survivors observed the carnage, they attempted to scatter but the Zaku squadrons pressed their assaults despite the mounting losses.

Despite their losses, the Federation 4th fleet continued to advance on the colony while blazing away with all of its weapons to gain some advantage in this killing match. Soon, both fleets started exchanging long range shots while the fighter fleets savaged each other in the "no-mans land" separating the two sides.

As the blue-gray hulls of the Federation ships entered the range, the Zeon gunners picked their shots with care in order to ensure a kill. After delivering their salvos, the Zeon ships broke from their positions to before their opposite numbers could get a clean shot off at them. While doing this, the captains of the Zeon vessels always kept the colony in their sights in case the EFF launched flank attacks. The Zeon gunners also fired their shots in rapid succession to thin out their ranks for some of the more fatalistic soldiers felt that soon they would engage at point blank range and they felt that the Federation had that advantage.

**Island Iffish**:

For the Zeon engineers in and around the huge colony cylinder, the idea of a firefight occurring right above their heads was not their idea on a fun time; in fact, everyone winced and stopped their activities for a few long seconds after a large nearby explosion before resuming their work at a faster pace. The few MS-05B Zaku Is orbiting around the colony provided some form of protection but as the engineers caught a glimpse of the battle raging outside, they knew their chances of survival were zero if the EFF broke through.

After another wave of explosions occurred around the colony, the lead engineer attempted to contact the flagship, "Sir, the fighting has caused delays with the preparations for the drop". He paused before continuing, "You must enlarge your perimeter to ensure our safety".

The officer on the other end replied harshly, "We're trying to do that right now but if we enlarge too much then our lines become weaker, which will allow the enemy to punch through". He paused before continuing in a loud harsh voice, "Hurry it up as fast as you can alright". The officer shut off the communications link, leaving the lead engineer to snarl at the unrealistic demands before turning to the others and roaring out in a loud voice, "Get back to work and don't stop for anything, I want the engines ready as soon as possible".

Outside of the colony, the Zeon ships and mobile suits continued to maneuver around to avoid the EFF's fire while ensuring a strong ring around the colony. Although mostly successful, it tied them to a single defensive point and they sustained higher casualties than the attacks on all three Sides combined.

However much damage the Zeon fleet suffered, the Federation fleet fared a lot worse. With barely any communications, the 4th fleet could not coordinate its attacks nor defend itself adequately against Zeon's new weapons. Already, they had lost nearly all of their lead elements and their fighter cover proved almost ineffective against the green humanoid machines.

**EFSF _Titan_**

Admiral Tianem cursed as he saw several more vessels explode under the savage fire. After looking at his nearly blank radar screen, Tianem roared out over the garbled communications links, "All ships tighten defensive formation, keep present course towards the colony". He paused before turning to his XO, "Are they in range of our nukes yet"?

The XO shook his head before saying, "Even if we are, we'd have to clear the way to use them". An explosion halted their conversation for a moment as both men looked outside at the explosions in front of them before the XO replied, "They're starting to hit our main groups".

Tianem cursed before saying, "All ships increase speed to maximum burn, we have to stop them at all costs". The _Titan's_ engines burned hot as she and her escorts continued their advance towards the colony while dividing their fire between defending themselves and stopping the colony. Explosions occurred all around the fleet as the Zeon warships and mobile suits continued to cut down the fleet's ranks.

For the Federation fighter squadrons, they did attempt to fight back but the Zeon humanoid fighters outclassed them at every turn. Only by operating in large groups could they hope to score against their counterparts and every time they killed one of the Zeon fighters, it cost them at least several Saberfish fighters.

To give a better chance of survival, the _Salamis_ class cruisers attempted to close in next to the _Magellens_ almost to the point where both ships could collide with each other. As the captains of the larger battleships saw what the cruisers were attempting, they swore at the chaos before they got on the line and ordered their fellow commanders to back off. Unfortunately it was too late as the Zaku squadrons took advantage of the bunched up formation and started firing bazookas in rapid succession.

The resulting explosions attracted everyone's attention and their faces paled as they soon saw the large white balls of light die out. In front of them lay several dozens of melted warships and a good number of fighters as well. In the midst of the debris, several squads of Zeon's humanoid machines roared through with weapons drawn and the intention of going for them next. In desperation, the fleet resumed its barrage on its foes.

**Zeon fleet: **

Although the Zeon fleet held its ground and inflicted heavy damage on the larger Federation Fleet, it suffered due to the larger number of ships as the EFF's disposal. Already the ship squadrons closest to the Federation Forces had lost most of their ships and the rest suffered heavy damage. While some stood and fought, the others attempted to maneuver to a relatively safer position while another ship took its place.

On the _Chivvay_ class cruiser serving as the flagship, Dannigan and his staff attempted to coordinate the battle under chaotic conditions. Although his personal ship flew some distance away from the engagement zone, the cruiser shook as she fired her guns at the Federation fleet.

As Dannigan looked at the maps, he turned and said, "Order the all of the ships to fall back to inner defensive formation and signal those in the other sections to head to the front". The general paused before continuing, "All inner units are to button up and to respond to any penetration by the enemy fleet". The general then paused before turning to his XO, "How far are we from the launching point".

The XO shook his head and said, "We have a long way to go before we reach it". An explosion from an unexpected quarter attracted the bridge crew's attention towards its source to see a small firefight developing. The XO immediately got on the line and said, "Send the nearest Zaku squads to the coordinates for there and plug it up". He then turned back to see Dannigan snarl at the intense combat playing out in front of them.

The fleet continued to trade fire with the ever closing Earth Federation Fleet and due to the bunched state of their foes, the Zeon shots killed many of the heavily damaged ships. But it seemed that for ever Federation ship killed, three more assumed its place and soon the captains eventually began to arm their missiles with nukes in preparation to use them.

**Outer Space:**

Despite the tremendous chaos of the battle thus far, the Zeon Zakus continued to perform outstandingly. Bold and resourceful squadron leaders took their men on daring strikes inside enemy lines, which spread fear amongst the Federation soldiers who watched with shocked look on their faces as the Zakus picked off targets despite the vicious AA fire they threw up.

Shin Matsunaga had already racked up an impressive kill count and was still busy gunning down several more Saberfish when sudden fire from two _Magellans_ and several _Salamis_ forced him to fall back for a few moments. Annoyed at their resistance, Matsunaga radioed to his fellow pilots, "Give me covering fire". While the other Zakus kept the ships busy, Matsunaga gunned his engines at full power while arming his bazooka and taking aim at the cruisers.

Surprised and now somewhat very frightened by the humanoid fighters, the ships concentrated the fire on the white Zaku as it approached them but it had no effect as the machine continued on its present course. When they spotted the missiles, they switched fire to them while maneuvering out of the way but it was too late as the missiles impacted on their targets, destroying the surrounding cruisers in nuclear explosions.

The shockwave hammered at the two _Magellans_ and they were distracted for several critical seconds as Matsunaga flew down to the deck with his 120mm machine gun armed. Before the _Magellans_ could resume fire, the white Zaku flew up to the bridge of one of the ships before blowing it away with a burst of his gun, sending it out of control while he switched to his heat hawk and headed for the bridge of the other _Magellan_.

In another part of the battle zone, Roy Greenwood continued to exchange fire with an increasing number of Saberfish fighters. Though he and his fellow pilots held their ground, the sheer number of targets forced them to use up their ammunition at an exceptionally fast rate while dodging the sheer volume of fire their enemies threw up. Several of the less experienced Zaku pilots lost their lives in this fashion and the other already had many close calls with death.

As Greenwood blew away another Saberfish, he immediately checked his weapons status and cursed at the fact that he was getting low on ammunition. Before he could react, an alarm sound and he turned to see a large group of Saberfish flying at him head on with guns blazing. Greenwood immediately dodged while firing back at his assailants and he soon started radioing for assistance.

The Federation Fighter pilots flew in at full throttle while aiming their weapons with their own angry eyes. As soon as they felt that they lat a lock, each pilot let loose with a burst of 30mm machine gun fire at their combined target. For those with the eyes of a sniper, some loosened off missiles at their targets.

The victim of this particular combined strike winced as he heard the bullets impact on his suit's armor. He immediately turned to check his systems but then it started to get worse as he felt himself thrown around and his cockpit started to shower with sparks. The pilot screamed as he struggled to get his suit out of the line of fire while screaming for help. It was not long in coming as Roy's fellow pilots swooped in with guns blazing. As he attempted to regain control of his heavily damaged suit, the pilot cursed at his carelessness before coming to a decision, "Head back to your ships and rearm yourselves". Several Zakus followed him while the rest continued to launch slashing attacks on the Federation Forces in front of them.

**Island Iffish's control center: **

Despite the battle playing right outside and the lost of several men, the engineer groups finally finished installing the huge engines and setting the coordinates for the colony. As soon as the panels in the main control center clicked a healthy green, the lead engineer contacted the flagship, "Sir, everything is ready to go over here".

The voice on the other end of the line replied in a hurried tone, "Alright now get all of your men out of there, we're chop a team of Zakus to cover you".

After the communications link was cut, the lead engineer roared out, "Return to the shuttles and prepare to evacuate". Already having enough incentive due to the fighting outside, the men rushed out to the shuttles as if they were in retreat.

Outside of the colony, the MS-05 Zaku Is began to close in to the colony the _Komusai_ shuttles departed from it. When their sensors spotted any Federation units closing on them, the Zaku Is let loose with rapid bursts of their 120 mm machine guns as the _Komusais_ flew up to the other warships.

Dannigan watched all of this for a few more minutes until he heard the announcement of the last shuttle docking over the loudspeakers. Turning to his XO, the general yelled out, "Order all ships to reform in covering formation and signal the Zaku squadrons that they may engage at will.

Throughout the ships of the Zeon fleet, the order felt like a godsend for now they could maneuver freely. Some of the very heavily damaged ships began to fall back almost too quickly while their sisters moved about in an orderly manner. Onboard all the Zeon ships, the clocks began to run down till eventually they all reached zero at the same time, at which point, the enormous engines began to burn.

As for the Zaku squadrons, they gathered up into a massive green phalanx. Along with the Gattle fighter bombers, they soon dove back into the attack with guns blazing.

**EFSF Titan: **

Busy with just trying to stay alive, Tianem and his staff forgot about Island Iffish until its engines came to life. Tianem immediately turned and roared, "Get me the exact destination where it's going to impact on Earth". Despite the flagship shaking due to the battle, one of the officers immediately researched for the information and within seconds, his face started to pale, "Sir, that colony is heading for Jaburo".

The whole bridge turned silent for a moment while Tianem looked out at the window towards the huge colony now making its way towards Earth. Cursing his options, Tianem yelled out through the communications link, "Signal all ships to direct main fire towards the colony, we have to reduce it as best we can".

Throughout the fleet, the crews reacted with shock since the large volume of fire directed against the Zeon fleet was the one thing that kept them back. To direct the fire away would reduce their chance down to zero. With no choice, the fleet changed its course as well as its firepower and soon energy fire started impacting on the colony.

The decrease in firepower heading their way gave the Zakus enough time to reform with devastating consequences. They roared back into the attack with support from the Zeon fleet: easily smashing aside the already battered Federation fighter forces.

When the _Titan's_ scrambled scanners detected the air strike, Tianem told his commanders, "All units brace for impact". The ship soon began to shake as the assembled Zaku force began its strafing runs. Ships, already heavily damaged soon began to explode by the score while the rest suffered even more grievous wounds. In the midst of all this, a hundred dogfights raged as the thoroughly outnumbered Saberfish fled for their lives.

The energy fire from the fleet soon started to impact on the colony but to their horror, the huge metal cylinder withstood their barrage. It resembled ants stinging a huge elephant. As the ship commanders observed this, they relayed the information back to the _Titan_ while trying holding off the relentless attacks of the Zaku squadrons.

Back aboard the flagship, the admiral and his staff watched intensity as the fire from the fleet continued to impact on the colony. Eventually, the mirrors on the colony started to break apart but the body still remained intact and on course towards Earth. As he saw this, Tianem turned and asked, "Are we in range to use our nukes yet"? His XO replied in the negative while watching the space in front of the fleet. Cursing at his losses, Tianem took a deep breath before saying, "Send a signal to all ships to begin retreat", "Also, signal Jaburo about the situation".

The entire bridge crew looked at him in shock but when they turned to look at the windows and radar screens, they soon agreed with him. For a virtual steel wall of Zeon ships and fighters blocked their path to the colony. Under continuous fire and heavy jamming, the bridge crew transmitted the orders to the other ships, which soon began turning hard in all directions except for the battle zone.

Seeing the chaos of the retreat invigorated the Zakus and they roared back into the attack, heedless of the mounting losses. Resorting to bazookas, they soon destroyed many of the stragglers with well placed shots while easily avoiding the pitiful AA fire. The remaining Federation fighters flew back into to defend the retreating ships but the Zakus easily mowed them down with machine gun fire.

As they heard the screams of their dying comrades, many of the survivors swore to themselves that they would avenge them someday. Others like Vice-Admiral Tianem watched grimly as the Zeon fleet and the colony faded right behind them. Once clear of the battle zone, the admiral turned to his XO and ordered tiredly, "Get me Revil on the line now".

**Zeon fleet: **

In contrast to the dejected mood aboard the Federation ships, it was party time on the Zeon ships as they saw that they had accomplished their mission against incredible odds. As the tired Zaku pilots landed their machines on the decks of the warships, the deck crews greeted them with joyous laughter which they soon joined in by congratulating each other for a job well done.

The bridge crew of the flagship also congratulated with each other and their superior officers. As he watched the colony fly ever closer to Earth, Dannigan smiled before turning to one of the communications officers, "Open a channel to the Joint Operations Center and send in the footage".

**Zum City:**

In the ominous silence of his office, Gihren Zabi worked at his desk under an enormous portrait of his father when Cecilia called him, "Sir, we have an update from the front sir". Gihren nodded in assent before Cecilia activated a large screen of the battle zone. Within minutes, the picture cleared up to show the body of Island Iffish falling towards Earth.

As he saw this, Gihren smiled in cruel glee as he imagined the horror the impact would inflict on the Earth Federation Forces. He then returned back to Cecilia and said, "Prepare the speech for the general public and send the commanders my congratulations". The red-haired woman nodded and signed off while Gihren returned to watch the unfolding spectacle in silence.

Suddenly his eyes spotted the flashes of missile launches from the surface of the Earth. Sure enough, dozens of ICBMs emerged from all over the Earth heading towards the huge metal cylinder. Gihren's eyes adjusted to the inevitable flash of nuclear explosions before seeing that the nukes had only blackened the colony and that it was still on course. However, once Gihren quickly processed the destination in his mind, he quietly snarled before getting Cecilia back on the line, "Find out the exact location of Island Iffish's impact point with the Earth". It took a few minutes for Cecilia to reply back and her answer produced a small snarl on his face before he recovered his composure, "Thank you Cecilia". He then turned back to look at the screen and said icily to the screen of the colony, "The Federation may have escaped defeat at the moment but we will eventually defeat them".

**The Pacific Region of Earth: **

Despite the changes that all cities undergo, the city of Sydney still retained many of the historical features of years past. It's most famous landmark the Sydney Opera House was now even bigger and had the facilities to handle the most spectacular concerts. Other well known landmarks include its large amusements parks and most importantly of all, its enormous sports facilities.

It was in the middle of rush hour with its population struggling to get home under the usual weight of the traffic. So far, all seemed relatively normal although there had been a few rumors here and there about the events in space. Already, those that had high-level contacts within the Earth Federation Government had discreetly left the city just hours ago to avoid the worst the attack.

For the rest, once the chaos began, neither they nor those in the surrounding region had virtually any chance of survival. The first warning came when the sky suddenly turned black for a moment before the citizens saw an enormous glowing object heading straight at them. Unfortunately, they stood no chance of escape for once the colony touched the ground the last thing they was pure white and orange before eternal blackness.

The resulting explosion sent an enormous mushroom cloud high into the air while shockwaves erupted far deep into the ground for many long miles. The Pacific and to a lesser extent the Indian Ocean began to stir exceptionally violently as if the gods had become angered by it.

Other regions around the Pacific Ocean suffered dreadfully with the West Coast of the former United States suffering almost as dreadfully as that of Australia. Large debris from the now destroyed colony fell right on top of cities and military structures in the area, either flattening them or shattering them into wrecks.

**Zum City:**

As Gihren saw the chaos and destruction resulting from the destroyed colony, he smiled as he imagined the casualties the enemy would suffer due to this. Pausing for a moment to consider his plans, Gihren signaled his secretary, "Tell the commanders to head back to Side 3 as soon as possible and order the news stations to release the report of this great victory". Cecilia nodded and Gihren returned to the screen of the Earth and the small mushroom cloud now noticeable in the southern hemisphere.

**Luna II/Jaburo: ****January 6th, UC 0079**

When the first wave of footage from the destroyed areas began to filter through, the reactions in all ranks was nearly unanimous: that of sad shock at the destruction and angry determination at their foes.

As General Revil watched the heavily damaged _Titan_ dock, an aide walked up to whisper in his ear. After hearing what the aide had said, the general took a deep breath before saying, "Signal all commanders to gather in the conference room, it seems we have much to discuss". Then he turned back to watch the somewhat more dangerous stars before he whispered quietly, "For those who think this war is already over, it may have only just begun".

**Author's Notes:**

For this battle, I used a mix of WWI and regular carrier tactics in order to portray the fighting in this chapter while also imagining this as stopping a moving bridgehead.

I've tried to get the states somewhat right from the conflicting information available to me from the net. Even so, I apologize if I got any of this wrong (looks worriedly at the UC crowd).

If you haven't already guessed it, another one of the OYW Zeon aces arrives in the action.

**Author's questions:**

Since this is one of the major events of the One Year War, how well did I do in getting it right in all matters?

If anyone has any suggestions for improvements then you're more than welcome to send them.

As always, please read and review.


	8. Intermission I

Chapter 8: Intermission I

**January 8th, UC 0079:  
Side 3:  
**Though the journey back home was peaceful, the soldiers of the Zeon fleet were very jumpy to say the least due to the stress of battle that they had endured during the past few days. Why many did manage to adjust themselves and get back to a sense of normalcy, the horror of combat stunned others into silence or other uglier things. It was not until they saw the comforting sight of the Zeon bases of A Bao Qau and Solomon, did the men begin to truly relax due to the sight of seeing their homes very much intact thus far.

As soon as the Zeon fleet entered into home territory, the fleet began to split up as the ships headed to their respective home ports. Once docked, they immediately replenished their supplies while their crews departed them as quickly as possible.

**Zum City:  
**When Dannigan's ship docked at the colony cylinder holding Zum City, he immediately stood up and headed out of the bridge with his command staff following him. Once they arrived at the docking clamps, crowds of reporters and civilians greeted them with most of them bombarding questions in a rushed manner. Taken by surprise, the general and his command staff answered in a hesitant fashion before their military training kicked in and Dannigan said, "Even though the enemy fought hard and will continue to fight hard, we will defeat them". He and his staff continued to walk until they saw a row of limousines waiting for them.

Once they reached the joint forces communications center, the greeting party surprised Dannign. All of the representatives of the Zeon assembly, the Zeon general staff and the entire Zabi family waited as he and his staff entered the building. Once the general arrived in front of Gihren Zabi, he immediately saluted the true leader of the Principality.

Gihren returned the salute before offering his hand for Dannigan to shake while saying for all to hear, "I am honored to meet you all today and I want to thank you all for your services thus far for the entire nation of Zeon". After receiving the handshake Gihren continued on, "Your actions have shown the foolish Federation that those that live out here in space will no longer be trampled upon". Most of the room clapped their hands together in agreement though Gihren could see that there were a few that stood their grumbling silently. Leaving that matter closed for now, Gihren then announced to the room, "Let our people celebrate so that it will prepare them for new victories". With that, the gathered people began to disperse as aides served food and drinks to loosen people's tongues before the heavy after-action and future planning conferences.

Also invited to the crowd were many of the heroes of the earlier firefights including none other than Char Aznable and Garma Zabi? As they enjoyed the party, a score of people assaulted them both with some asking questions and others just wanting to chance to meet the two face to face. While Garma relished the spotlight, especially with all of the women, Char acted in a polite and reserved manner taking his time to talk with those who came up to talk to him about most subjects.

In another corner of the room, Kycilia Zabi was busy in conversation with one of her admirals by the name of Maharaja Karn. They were discussing about research and development as well as more personal matters.

Maharaja immediately took a huge gulp of his drink before mentioning, "So far the testing of the new weapons has been proceeding apace but the scientists are worn out". He paused before saying, "However we can expect use of some of the new weapons very shortly".

Kycilia then whispered quietly, "Make sure that you do for in war, technologies change in an instant". She then paused before saying, "It is only through the effective use of whatever technology we develop can we defeat the Federation forces". The admiral nodded before he said in a more light hearted manner, "Now I must attempt to search for my daughter".

Kycilia smiled for a moment before asking, "How is Haman these days"?

Maharaja smiled before saying, "She is doing pretty well actually in her studies and also it seems she has taken an interest in the events of the outside world". He then grinned before saying, "And yet she is still at a very young age to be thinking about such things".

Kycilia shrugged before saying, "Well children do grow up quick". She then headed off to talk with other delgates.

In the midst of the crowd, a small girl with dark pink/purplish hair wondered amongst the adults as she took a sip of her drink. Soon though the number of adults around her was so much that she tried to struggle her way through. Eventually though she accidently bumped into Char as he was talking with one of the ladies.

Due to his training, Char instantly reacted in a defensive posture and turned around to see whoever had bumped into him. However when he saw the girl looking a little frightened, his face softened and he bent down to her level before saying, "I apologize little one if I startled you".

The sincerity of Char's voice relaxed the frightened girl and she immediatley started to apologize by saying, "I kinda got lost while trying to make my way through here". She then paused as she observed the man in front of her, "You're a pilot aren't you sir"?

Char smiled before saying, "Yes ma'am, I'm a pilot and have already serve some time on the frontlines out there". He paused before asking, "May I ask what your name is"?

The girl paused before saying, "My name is Haman Kahn". Char nodded for a moment as she continued, "I don't really like being in crowded places such as this but right now I'm somewhat enjoying myself". She then paused before saying, "Mr. Aznable, if I may ask, what is it like out there"?

Char mused on the thought for a moment before he said quietly, "All I can say that it is a very interesting experience and that it is for those who are going in with their eyes completely open". He paused before continuing on, "If they do that then they have the best chance to survive".

Haman nodded at all of this before she bowed and replied, "Thank you Mr. Aznable, it has been a pleasure talking to you". She then wandered off as Char turned to see Garma starring back at him with a large grin.

Char immediatley asked annoyed, "What"?

Garma laughed before saying, "Nothing, its just that it was kinda funny seeing you talk like that with everyone including people like her".

Char shrugged before replying back, "Well at least its better than the way you've been handling the women at the party". Both men laughed as they took sip of their drinks before Char said, "We might as well find something else to do here". Both men nodded as they made their way through the crowd once again.

Gihren Zabi watched all of the partying with a critical eye as Cecilia joined him. As she looked at his face, Cecilia remarked, "It seems that you would rather be somewhere else at the moment".

Gihren grunted before whispering to her, "It's a bore but they pretty much deserve it". He then paused before saying, "Besides, it will help with the gathering of completely information if the men are relaxed and acting normal". Cecilia nodded before they turned to look back at the party playing out in front of them until Gihren said to her, "Ensure that the commanders arrive at the meeting tomorrow as soon as possible".

**At the military installations in Zeon:**  
While most of the pilots enjoyed the R&R, there were those that thrived on their work, whether it be actually piloting the mobile suit or attempting to ensure that the new rookies could fly in them for more than one mission. In fact some of those very pilots immediately threw themselves back to work after a very short rest period of rest.

As the three pilots of the Black Tri-Stars observed the new recruits in action, they all had grim faces for as the rookie pilots did perform well; they felt that the new pilots were missing something that helped them and the others that came before become superb pilots. After seeing the many MS-05B Zaku Is fly through more maneuvers, the three signaled them to land their mobile suits. Once they did, the new rookie pilots immediately surrounded the Black Tri-Star pilots as they waited for the report from their peers.

After all three looked at each other, Gaia turned to the eager rookies and said to them, "Since it seems that you all passed, we'll have to try another way to separate you all". He then paused before saying, "Now let's see how you'll all react in combat conditions" as he, Mash, and Ortega walked to their own Zakus which were loaded with live rounds.

The rookies looked at each other nervously before heading back to their own Zakus and soon they were all space borne again before Mash came on the line, "Alright now all of you will attempt to attack us". The other pilots all looked at the Black Tri-Star pilots in shock before they complied with the demand of the veteran pilots. For their part, the Black Tri-Star pilots looked at the rookies and hoped that their fears about the training were unfounded.

In another part of the training grounds, Ramba Ral watched as his veterans trained the new recruits in the tactics that he had used in action. Soon after proving his tactics, Ral heard that the high command had allowed him to raise several more of these units. Unfortunately, it took time to raise such units and they could select only a few people due to the nature of the missions they went on.

As Ramba Ral observed the training of the new recruits, a tall blond-haired woman arrived and walked to his side with a mug in her hand. Without even looking, Ramba Ral said to her, "So Crowley, what do you think of the new recruits we have here"?

The blond haired woman smiled for a moment before she said, "So far they look good but we both know what will separate them". Her face darkened for a moment before she said quietly, "So now that it has begun, I wonder what Deikun would have thought about it all".

Her lover nodded for although "pledging" loyalty to the new regime and owing Gihren Zabi several favors, Ral's family had been in league with the Deikuns before Zeon Deikun died and Degiwn Zabi took over. That thought had kept him on guard most of the time when he dealt directly with Gihren. Pausing for a moment, Ramba whispered, "I would think that perhaps he would have been more restrained in his approached in a situation such as this".

Both remained silent for several moments until Ramba Ral took a deep breath and signaled his troops to come back in. After arriving he replied to them all, "All right you all did a good job on the training today, get some rest and we'll take it again from the top". He then turned to Crowley with a smile before saying, "Mind if you join me for dinner". Crowley smiled back as if nodding in agreement.

For some of the other aces, they gave lectures to the eager recruits about the capabilities of the Zaku as well as participated in a few training missions as well, mainly to sharpen their own skills. It also involved the use of several of the larger ships of the Zeon fleet which served as target practice for those attempting ship borne attacks.

It also provided a chance for the Zeon warships to get some training in as they awaited the next round of orders. Meanwhile, the space docks hurried up to finish the repairs as well as the construction of new warships.

**Earth Federation controlled areas:**  
If the situation in Zeon was normal, then the situation playing out in the Earth Federation would have certainly equaled hell. Chaos plagued them both in space and back on Earth.

Scores of ships surrounded Luna II as well as the two untouched remaining colonies of Side 5 and 6. As each civilian ship docked with one of the forty cylinders in each side, it unloaded as many of its civilians as possible before departing and allowing another ship to pass through. Soon long lines of refugees began to form and it soon reached the point where several of the colony cylinders closed their own ports down. Meanwhile, the Federation garrison fleets in the remaining two sides had already deployed although they had heard the rumors about the new Zeon weapons.

Back at Luna II, more chaos reigned as damaged ships, both military and civilian, continued to arrive. Unfortunately, the base garrison turned away many of the civilian ships due to the fact that Luna II was foremost a military base, and therefore the military ships came first.

Worst hit of all was none other than the mother planet Earth for after the colony had landed and wiped Sydney off the face of the Earth, its results continued to still be felt. Earthquakes hammered Australia as well as the surrounding landmasses in the Pacific Ocean, which created huge tidal waves that were infinitely much worse than those caused by natural means. The huge tidal waves also sank scores of ships in the open ocean, often without warning and with no survivors. Also, large parts of the colony landed on the Earth in the form of meteor showers and while most of the pieces didn't cause much damage, some did as the remains hammered both coasts of the former United States of America.

Despite the danger to their own lives, many doctors and aid organizations immediately headed to the disaster zone to help repair the human damage even at the risk of their own lives. Along with the help of Federation troops already in the disaster zone and regardless of nationality or religion, they set out to save as many lives as they can.

**January 9th, UC 0079  
Luna II**  
Revil grimly watched the troops around him while attempting to maintain his composure at the sight of the refugees. Combine this with the recent conference with the politicians and commanders that remained on Earth, well he was really itching to smash something. However, when he heard the doorbell to his quarters ring, Revil calmed himself down before saying out loud, "Enter".

Tianem saluted before the look on Revil's face made him mention, "So it seems you are also breaking under the strain". He paused before saying, "Well you're in good company for about half the higher-level officers I passed by also feel the same". After looking at Revil's face for a moment, Tianem then said, "The other half are itching to take it to those bastards since they think that despite the losses, we still outnumber them".

Revil nodded in partial agreement but then said, "But if we loose and suffer enormous losses then we will stand no chance against a return strike". Pausing for a moment before continuing, Revil then said, "Besides Admiral Tianem we did outnumber them when we attempted to stop the colony attack and yet we lost with heavy casualties". Tianem instinctively winced for a moment Revil turned to look back out at the great sad sea of humanity flooding into Luna II.

Down in the dockyards, scores of fighter pilots sat down in whatever space they could find. Most had exhausted and horrified looks in their eyes as they relived the horrors they had just witnessed. Already, it had sent several to the infirmaries and eventually the squadron commanders grounding them due to their unstable mental health.

Those same squadron commanders had also spent time looking at the battle footage in order to find any weakness against the new Zeon weapons. After watching the footage several more times, they all turned at each other for a moment before one of the senior squadron commanders said, "I'm thinking we'll need to do a lot of improvisation to handle the new Zeon fighters". The others nodded as they considered the fact that their training had now proven useless since the new Zeon weapons neutralized their scanning equipment.

However, one of then spoke up and said, "But how do we intend to do this in such a short period of time". Pausing for a moment, the squadron commander replied to his colleagues, "It takes a long time to train fighter pilots and often they usually get settled into their ways after a while". Turning back to look at the now dark screen, "It will take much to train them out of the techniques they learned to use".

The others started to argue before the senior pilot in the room quieted everyone down as he said, "I know but we have to try and hope that the instincts that allowed them to get this far will help them again or else will be stacking bodies in space". Pausing to look back at the clock for a moment, the senior squadron commander in the room said, "In about two hours, we'll conduct these new training missions", "Let us truly hope that we can truly teach these old dogs some new tricks". Everyone grunted in agreement as they all left the large ready room for their respective quarters.

**12:20 .a.m., January 10th, UC 0079  
Balda Bay, Side 6**  
The governor of the colony cluster of Side 6 watched as the members of his cabinet argued endlessly on how they should respond to the situation. However, it was clear that they all wanted to get rid of the Federation fleet orbiting outside of the colony. Despite securing independence from the Earth Federation, the Federation still had a garrison fleet stationed in the area, ostensibly to protect its own civilians who lived in the colony cluster. The only problem was getting rid of the Federation fleet in the area without risking trouble for the colony.

As the governor watched his cabinet bicker, his eyes could see the sides starting to develop in this verbal slug match. On one side stood the younger members who wanted to use direct measures to force the Federation out and although grateful for the support from the Principality, they were a little wary about the Zabis. The older members wanted to negotiate with the Federation as well as the Zeons in order to preserve their individual sovereignty. After hearing the others shout in very loud voices, the president took a deep breath before saying out loud, "Being stuck in here for several hours may have exhausted all of us so may I suggest we take a break for an hour or so and then reconvene". Now sensing their own exhaustion, the others agreed and they soon emptied the room.

As the governor walked alone through the hallways, an aide ran up to him to whisper that the Zeon ambassador had arrived. Nodding immediately in agreement, the governor waited for the Zeon ambassador to arrive beside him before resuming his walk.

After a moment, the Zeon ambassador turned to the Side 6 governor and said, "First I would like to thank you for meeting with me under these circumstances". He then paused before saying, "If Side 6 needs any assistance in throwing off the Federation yoke, and then Zeon is ready to assist".

The governor nodded before saying, "I am very appreciative". Pausing for a moment to choose his words carefully, "But I have received reports that the fighting in the other sides resulted in their complete destruction".

Wincing for a moment, the Zeon ambassador replied harshly, "I can assure you that the destruction of the Sides was caused by the Federation". The governor smiled politely as the Zeon ambassador continued his rant, "We tried to prevent the damage but the Federation would not allow that". He paused for a moment before saying, "And when the Federation retreated, they destroyed the remains of the colony clusters to ensure that they would not be liberated".

The governor paused for a moment to gather his thoughts before saying, "I understand and from what we've heard, it is most likely that what you say is true". He paused before continuing on, "However I have to ensure the safety of Riah and to be too openly aligned with any force in this conflict will put that safety at risk".

Before the Zeon ambassador could say anymore, the governor looked back at his watch before saying, "I have to get back since the others will be expecting me". The ambassador nodded as the governor walked down the corridor back to the meeting room with the rest of the cabinet. Once he arrived, the arguments started up again although this time, all the participants conducted themselves with a little more civility. After hearing the arguments once again, the governor took a deep breath before he said, "Although you all have different ideas to go about it, it seems that we all have a common goal". Pausing for a moment, he continued by saying, "Perhaps there is a way to ensure the safety of Riah by using the combined methods that you all have suggested". The governor explained for five minutes and when he finished, the others in the room smiled at what he had in mind for it would give them much while asking for little in return.

**11:30pm, January 10th, UC 0079  
Jaburo, South America:**  
The Federation President was busy finishing up some paperwork before planning to turn in for the night when he heard the knocking at his door. Ignoring it for several moments, the President then took a deep breath before saying, "Enter". The door instantly opened as an aide entered in looking out of breath. Looking at him for a moment, the President then asked, "What is so important that it couldn't wait"?

Realizing that he was being put on the spot, the aide replied in a hasty tone, "Sir, we're receiving a message from Side 6 sir and is something you should hear". This got the attention of the President and he immediately ran out to see the other politicians and generals as the watched the governor of Side 6 read from a prepared speech with his cabinet behind him. As he heard the speech, the President signaled one of the generals in the room before the general headed to activate a link with the Federation garrison fleet while everyone else listened to the speech. After several moments, the commander turned to everyone else in the room and reported that the fleet there was still intact. Once the speech ended, the Federation president turned angrily to all in the room and said, "Get everyone up, we're having a meeting right now and open up a channel to Luna II".

**1:30am January 11th, UC 0079  
EFSF _John Fisher_  
**After hearing the last of the Side 6 governor's speech, Rear-Admiral Thomas Copeland ordered the fleet to battle stations while asking his XO to ensure that all of his ships managed to leave port. Once he did, he ordered the fleet to wait while they waited for orders from Luna II or Earth.

Despite that, Copeland gritted his teeth at what the Side 6 governor had said in his speech. After passing through the academy, he had hoped for assignment at Luna II or Jaburo but unfortunately, his superior officers gave him command of a colony garrison fleet. Although he hated spacenoids as much as the next Federation officer and welcomed the chance to kill some of them, he did not want to bite the bullet right away and the situation the Side 6 garrison fleet was in looked ripe for such a situation.

The XO's voice shook him out of his thoughts when he told him that a shuttle from the Side 6 colony garrison was arriving off their starboard side. Copeland considered turning the shuttle away or even blowing the shuttle up but he thought better of it as he moved a hand through his dark brown hair, "Allow the shuttle to dock and send guards to greet them". Although surprised by the answer, the XO nodded before heading off the bridge while Copeland looked at the view before him for several more minutes before heading out of the bridge himself.

In one of the waiting rooms, the representative from Side 6 sat in his chair as composed as possible as he watched the guards with their guns eyed him warily. Before he could say anything, the admiral and his XO walked in and before the representative could speak, Copeland immediately spoke in a grim tone, "Say what you will and leave".

Steadying himself, the Side 6 representative touched his glasses for a moment before saying in a calm voice, "I have here the list of request from the colony government to you and a copy has already been sent to Jaburo". Pausing for a moment, the diplomat continued on as he said, "Once you follow through, we will maintain full diplomatic relations and we will offer you our services if you wish to discuss any attempts to end the conflict with Zeon".

Copeland gritted his teeth in anger as he considered his options for a moment before he asked, "If any member of the colony garrisons whishes to leave, will you let them".

The Side 6 representative paused for a moment before he said, "They can emigrate but unfortunately they cannot return until hostilities cease". Putting his hands together for a moment, the representative then asked, "Is there anything else we need to discuss".

Looking at the paper for several more minutes, Copeland shook his head in agreement before he turned to his guards and said in a quiet tone, "Take our esteemed guest back to the shuttle". Once he left, the admiral turned to his XO and said, "Wait until we have all of those that wish to emigrate before we leave". The XO grimly nodded and headed off to conduct his duties while Copeland turned and headed back for the bridge while he whispered, "To hell with these people, I hope that the Zeons do our job for us".

Within the hour, the Side 6 garrison fleet had departed for Luna II and the rest of the fleet. Many of them would fall victim to the new Zeon onslaught already in the planning stages.

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**Author's Notes:**

1. Although this did not occur until sometime after the battle of Loumm, I wanted to mention about training new pilots for the Zakus and the small nagging worry of training bothering them in preparation for the next few chapters.

2. The name of the John Fisher is from the British Admiral who developed the first dreadnaughts on October 3, 1906. Considering that at this stage, the Federation mainly concentrated on big-gun warships, I thought that it was a suitable name for a _Magellan_ class battleship.

3. For one of the reviewers on well you got your wish for an appearance by Haman Kahn.

4. Although some of you may feel a bit iffy about it, I did mention about the fact (as stated in the Mobile Suit Gundam novel) that Ramba Ral did owe Gihren a few favors.

5. It may seem like a rush but I wanted to get through the issue of Side 6 declaring its neutrality out of the way since the next chapter will deal with the preparations for the Battle of Loumm.

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**Author's Questions**: 

1. Should I have given some of the Federation politicians names or just leave them unnamed?

2. How well did I do in portraying the differences between Zeon and the Federation in terms of measuring up after the first round of fighting?

3. I apologize for the title of this chapter and wished that perhaps I could have chosen a better title.

4. As always, how did I portray the characters: did I portray them as close as possible to a mix of both versions of each of the main Gundam canon characters in the book and animation?

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**Personal question: Any other Gundam fanfic projects I should consider doing?**

Next chapter: Chapter 9: next stop Side 5.

**As always please read and review since I would like to hear from my peers about how well this is going and what improvements could be made to make this better? Also could use some advice as well particularly from other UC fanfic authors.**


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